LIBRARY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
doss 


, 


Literary   Landmarks 

of  the 

Scottish  Universities 


By 
Laurence  Hutton 


Illustrated 


G.  P.   Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

3be  "Knickerbocker  press 
1904 


I- A  6.5 


COPYRIGHT,   1904 

BY 
ELEANOR  V.  HUTTON 

PUBLISHED,  OCTOBER,  1904 


ttbe  ftnfcfterbocfeer  preas,  flew  florfc 


TO 

WOODROW    WILSON 
A  STERLING  SON  OF  PRINCETON 

AND 

A  DIRECT  DESCENDANT  OF  THE  SCHOOLS 
OF  SCOTLAND 


Introductory  Note 

IT  seems  now  most  fitting  that  the  last 
book  of  literary  landmarks  written  by 
Mr.  Hutton  should  have  been  devoted  to 
Scotland,  the  home  of  his  ancestors,  and 
the  last  chapter  to  St.  Andrews  University, 
in  whose  environing  town  his  own  father  was 
born.  The  manuscript  of  this  volume  was 
sent  to  the  printer  some  weeks  before  Mr. 
Hutton's  death,  but  the  proofs  were  returned 
too  late  for  his  revision.  They  have  been 
read  by  a  friend  and  neighbour  of  his  in  the 
town  in  which  he  died,  a  town  which  is  the 
seat  of  an  American  university  that  has 
many  historic  associations  with  the  univer- 
sities of  which  Mr.  Hutton  wrote.  In  per- 
forming this  last  office  of  the  author  in  the 
printing  of  a  book,  his  friend  takes  respon- 
sibility for  any  errors  that  may  have  crept 


vi  Introductory  Note 

into  the  text.  The  manuscript  was  prepared 
with  conscientious  care,  and  it  is  doubtful  if 
Mr.  Hutton  would  have  changed  a  single 
line,  for  he  set  down  naught  except  in  kind- 
liest spirit,  in  gentlest  humour,  and  in 
honesty. 

J.  H.  F. 

September  i,  1904. 


Contents 

PAGE 

EDINBURGH       .  l 

GLASGOW  ...  75 

ABERDEEN          .                         ...  115 

ST.  ANDREWS    ...                          •  *49 

INDEX                                                  •          •  '95 


vii 


Illustrations 

PAGE 

HAWTHORNDEN        .         .         Frontispiece 
OLD  COLLEGE,  EDINBURGH      .         .         .12 
OLD  COLLEGE;  QUADRANGLE,  EDINBURGH  24 
THOMAS  CARLYLE    .....  28 
NEW  UNIVERSITY  BUILDINGS,  EDINBURGH  36 
WILLIAM  DRUMMOND        ....  38 
QUADRANGLE?  NEW   UNIVERSITY,   EDIN- 
BURGH         48 

JAMES  BOSWELL 52 

LIBRARY  HALL,  EDINBURGH    ...  60 

HENRY  BROI/GHAM 62 

JOHN  BROWN 68 

McEwAN  HALL  AND  STUDENTS'  UNION, 

EDINBURGH 72 

CHARLES  D.ARWIN    .....  76 
MAIN  FRONT,  OLD  COLLEGE,  GLASGOW    .  84 
JOHN  GIBSON* LOCKHART           ...  88 
INTERIOR  COUJRT,  OLD  COLLEGE,  GLAS- 
GOW    90 

ix 


Illustrations 


PAGE 


OLD  COLLEGE  GATEWAY,  GLASGOW          .  96 

JAMES  WATT too 

OLD    COLLEGE    GATEWAY,    IN    PRESENT 

UNIVERSITY,  GLASGOW      .        .         .  102 

FRANCIS  JEFFREY 104 

PRESENT  UNIVERSITY,  GLASGOW      .         .  108 

WALTER  SCOTT no 

KING'S  COLLEGE,  ABERDEEN     .         .         .118 
CHAPEL,  KING'S  COLLEGE,  ABERDEEN       .  122 
CHOIR  STALLS,   KING'S  COLLEGE,  ABER- 
DEEN            126 

LIBRARY,  KING'S  COLLEGE,  ABERDEEN     .  130 
LIBRARY,  KING'S  COLLEGE,  ABEREEEN      .  134 
MARISCHAL  COLLEGE,  ABERDEEN      .         .  138 
QUADRANGLE,  MARISCHAL  COLLEGE,  AB- 
ERDEEN    ......  142 

GATE  OF  OLD  MARISCHAL  COLLEGE,  ABER- 
DEEN         ......  144 

UNIVERSITY,  ABERDEEN    ....  146 

ST.  LEONARD'S  COLLEGE,  ST.  ANDREWS, 

ABOUT  1750 152 

ST.  SALVATOR'S  COLLEGE,  ST.  ANDREWS, 

ABOUT  1750 156 

ST.    MARY'S    COLLEGE,    ST.    ANDREWS, 

ABOUT  1750       .....  160 


Illustrations  xi 


PAGE 


ST.  LEONARD'S  CHURCH,  ST.  ANDREWS  .  164 
COLLEGE  CHURCH,  ST.  ANDREWS  .  .  168 
MADRAS  COLLEGE  AND  BLACK  FRIARS' 

MONASTERY,  ST.  ANDREWS  .  .172 
THE  PENDS,  ST.  ANDREWS  .  .  .176 
UNITED  COLLEGES,  ST.  •ANDREWS  .  .  180 
ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE,  ST.  ANDREWS  .  184 
NEW  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY,  ST.  ANDREWS  188 
THOMAS  CHALMERS 190 


Edinburgh 


Edinburgh 


EDINBURGH  is  the  youngest,  but  not 
the  least  important,  or  the  least  in- 
teresting, of  the  Scottish  universities;  and, 
certainly,  no  other  institution  in  the  whole 
of  Great  Britain  is  more  rich  in  its  literary 
associations. 

One  hundred  and  seventy  years  after  the 
foundation  of  a  university  in  the  city  of  St. 
Andrews,  and  almost  a  century  after  King's 
College  was  established  in  Aberdeen,  James 
Sixth  of  Scotland,  in  1582,  granted  a  charter 
under  the  Great  Seal,  authorising  the  found- 
ing of  a  university  in  Edinburgh.  He  was 
inspired  thereto  by  the  zeal  of  the  Magis- 
trates and  Town  Council,  who,  "with  other 
respectable  citizens,"  were  jealous  of  the 
growing  intellectual  supremacy  of  sister 
towns  in  the  Kingdom ;  were  anxious  to 


4  Scottish  Universities 

promote  the  cause  of  learning  in  general; 
and,  especially,  to  encourage  the  liberal  edu- 
cation of  the  youth  of  the  Capital  and  its 
neighbourhood. 

The  idea  of  the  College  was  originally 
broached  in  1560.  In  1563,  certain  parts  of 
the  structures  and  grounds  belonging  to  the 
Provost  and  prebendaries  of  the  Collegiate 
Kirk  o'  Fields  were  purchased  as  a  site. 
In  1581,  despite  the  antagonism  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews,  and  of  the  Bishop  of 
Aberdeen,  the  work  of  building  was  begun ; 
and  in  March,  1583,  the  first  classes  were 
held  in  the  lower  halls  of  Hamilton  House, 
under  two  teachers  only;  one  in  "Bejan," 
one  in  Latin.  The  first  class  to  be  gradu- 
ated, that  of  1587,  was  forty-seven  strong. 
The  Class  of  1588  numbered  thirty;  and  in 
the  years  immediately  following,  the  general 
attendance  was  even  smaller. 

A  "Bejan,"  by  the  way,  was  a  Freshman. 
The  term  came  from  the  University  of 
Paris;  "Bec-jaune,"  in  falconry,  meaning 
a  "callow  hawk  just  out  of  the  nest,"  fresh 


Edinburgh  5 

from  home,  and  from  home  influences;  a 
first-year's  man.  The  second-year's  men 
were  called  "Semi-bejans,"  or  "Semies"  ;  in 
the  third  year  they  were  known  as  ' '  Bache- 
lors," and  in  the  final  session  as  "Magis- 
trands." 

The  Collegiate  Kirk  o'  Fields,  whose  site 
became  the  original  home  of  the  College, 
was  the  scene  of  the  death  of  the  unfortun- 
ate Darnley  in  1567,  the  mystery  of  which 
has  never  yet  been  solved.  Darnley  was 
not  a  very  admirable  young  gentleman,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  he  was  the  hus- 
band of  a  queen,  the  father  of  a  king,  and 
the  grandfather,  so  to  speak,  of  a  dynasty. 
The  house  in  which,  and  with  which,  he  was 
blown  to  pieces  was  afterwards  repaired,  and 
it  was  used,  for  a  time,  as  a  dwelling  of  the 
Principal  of  the  University.  It  existed 
when  Dalzel  wrote,  in  1803;  and  its  site  is 
now  covered,  in  part,  by  the  Library. 

The  present  "Old  College  Building  *  is 
upon  the  same  spot ;  except  that  the  early 
structure  faced  the  College  Wynd,  in  which, 


6  Scottish  Universities 

at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  were 
the  residences  of  the  professors. 

The  original  plan  of  learning  for  this  new 
seminary  in  Edinburgh  was  borrowed  from 
that  which  prevailed  in  the  earlier  Scottish 
colleges,  although  it  was  divested,  as  far  as 
was  possible,  of  those  antiquated  forms  and 
monastic  ceremonies  which  were  practised 
at  the  time  of  the  rule  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  in  Scotland,  and  by  which  the 
other  institutions  of  the  Kingdom  had  been 
very  much  embarrassed  at  the  period  of  the 
Reformation. 

The  session,  in  the  beginning,  lasted 
eleven  months  of  the  year ;  and  the  classes 
met  daily  at  six  A.M.,  in  the  winter;  and  at 
five  A.M.,  in  the  summer.  Until  the  open- 
ing of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  first  year 
was  devoted  to  Latin,  Greek,  and  dialectics ; 
the  second  year  to  a  repetition  of  these,  and 
also  to  arithmetic  and  rhetoric;  the  third 
year  to  rhetoric,  Hebrew,  and  dialectical 
analysis;  the  fourth  year  to  astronomy, 
geography,  disputation,  et  ccetera. 


Edinburgh  7 

The  University  now  has  two  annual  ses- 
sions: the  first  lasting  from  the  middle  of 
October  until  the  end  of  March ;  the  second, 
or  summer,  session  from  the  beginning  of 
May  until  the  end  of  July. 

At  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century 
there  were  forty  or  fifty  professors  in  the 
various  Faculties,  of  Arts,  Divinity,  Law, 
Medicine,  Music,  and  Science,  each  Faculty 
having  a  Dean  of  its  own.  And  there  were 
nearly  three  thousand  students,  over  two 
hundred  of  them  being  women.  A  com- 
paratively small  percentage  of  these  students 
obtain  a  degree,  or  attempt  to  be  graduated. 
That  is  not  what  they  go  to  the  University 
for.  They  seek  a  certain  amount  of  solid, 
valuable  information  on  certain  subjects, 
and  in  certain  lines;  and  when  they  obtain 
this,  they  drop  themselves  quietly  out. 
They  do  not  wait,  or  permit  themselves,  to 
be  dropped. 

.  The  Medical  Schools  of  Edinburgh  were 
born  towards  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  in  a  small  "Physic,"  or  Botanical, 


8  Scottish  Universities 

Garden,  near  Holyrood  Palace.  Botany 
was  recognised  as  a  university  subject,  and 
the  Curator  of  those  "  Physic  Gardens"  was 
made  its  first  professor.  Chairs  of  Chemis- 
try and  Astronomy  were  shortly  afterwards 
founded ;  and  the  Medical  Schools  grew  and 
flourished  to  their  present  greatness. 

When  the  space  in  the  "Old  College"  be- 
came too  limited  to  accommodate  the  yearly 
increasing  number  of  students,  the  "New 
College  Buildings,"  not  far  away,  sprang 
into  existence;  and  these  are  now  the 
home  of  the  famous  Medical  School;  the 
College  of  Surgeons  and  the  Royal  Infirm- 
ary not  being  connected  with  the  University 
proper. 

M'Ewan  Hall,  so  named  from  a  generous 
benefactor,  is  near  to  the  "New  University 
Buildings."  It  was  opened  in  the  winter 
of  1897-98;  and  since  that  time  it  has  been 
used  for  the  graduation  ceremonies  and  for 
other  public  University  functions.  It  is 
chief  among  the  modern  sights  of  the  town ; 
and  the  local  guide-books  declare  it  to  be 


Edinburgh  9 

"one  of  the  grandest  buildings  erected  in 
Europe  during  the  nineteenth  century." 

The  earliest  records  of  what,  in  America, 
is  called  "chapel,"  and  no  doubt  it  was 
compulsory,  show  that  the  gallery  at  the 
east  end  of  the  High  Church,  St.  Giles,  was 
allotted  to  the  professors  and  to  the  students, 
"until  the  patrons  should  find  room  for  a 
different  arrangement  in  this  particular." 

"A  Short  and  General  Confession  of  the 
True  Christian  Religion,  According  to  God's 
Word,"  was  prepared;  to  which  all  those 
who  received  degrees  from  the  College  were 
compelled  to  subscribe.  '  The  Additional 
Laws  "  of  1701  required  the  students  to  con- 
vene on  the  Lord's  Day,  in  their  classes, 
after  session,  to  be  exercised  in  their  sacred 
lessons.  And  on  all  days  to  show  proper 
example  to  others,  by  their  piety,  goodness, 
modesty,  and  diligence  in  learning. 

But  in  modern  times,  and  in  all  these 
Scottish  non-residential  colleges,  there  are 
no  rules  regarding  church-going.  That,  in 
Scotland,  is  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course. 


10         Scottish  Universities 

The  nucleus  of  the  University  Library 
was  the  three  hundred  volumes  left  by  a 
certain  Mr.  Clement  Littil,  or  Little,  to  the 
Town  Council  of  Edinburgh,  in  1580.  In 
each  book  is  the  neatly  printed  inscription 
"I  am  given  to  Edinburgh,  and  Kirk  o' 
God,  by  Maister  Clement  Litil.  There  to 
Remain. ' '  With  the  private  library  of  Haw- 
thornden,  bequeathed  in  1627  by  William 
Drummond,  the  friend  and  interviewer  of 
"Royal  Ben"  Jonson,  these  volumes  are 
now  kept  carefully  locked  away  in  a  small 
room,  off  the  hall,  where  they  are  half  for- 
gotten, and  are  rarely  seen  by  the  book- 
loving  and  book-worshipping  men  whose 
hearts  they  would  delight.  They  are  ex- 
ceedingly rare  autographs,  and  annotated; 
first  editions,  generally  beautifully  bound, 
most  of  them  beyond  price,  some  of  them 
absolutely  unique.  Alas !  they  do  no  good 
to  anybody  now,  except  to  the  very  few 
visitors  to  the  University  who,  learning  of 
their  existence,  beg  for  a  sight,  or  a 
touch,  of  them,  a  request  which  is  always 


Edinburgh  1 1 

graciously    granted.       But    there    they   are 
"to  remain." 

The  Library  has  other  rich  treasures,  all 
as  carefully  kept  from  public,  or  apprecia- 
tive, view;  the  Shaksperiana  collected  by 
Halliwell-Phillipps,  to  whom  the  University 
once  gave  an  honorary  degree ;  the  generally 
accepted  original  manuscripts  of  John  Knox's 
History  of  the  Reformation ;  Thomas  Car- 
lyle's  holograph  deed  of  gift  of  Craigenput- 
tock,  and  the  like.  But  they  are  as  little 
known  to  the  average  Edinburgh  man,  in 
the  University,  or  out  of  it,  as  are  the 
manuscripts  of  The  Poems  of  Ossian  or  of 
The  Iliad  of  Homer ;  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  they  are  of  far  more  sentimental 
value,  if  not  of  far  more  intrinsic  value,  than 
are  all  the  Crown  jewels  in  the  Castle,  un- 
earthed by  the  author  of  Marmion,  who 
must  have  revered  the  Laird  of  Hawthorn- 
den  as  much  as  he  reverenced  the  common- 

« 
place  wearers  of  the  regalia  of  Scotland. 

The  first  patrons  of  the  establishment  at 
Edinburgh  evidently  intended  that  every 


12         Scottish  Universities 

student  should  be  lodged  within  its  walls, 
and  should  remain  there  by  night,  as  well 
as  by  day.  And  it  was  ordered  that  all 
undergraduates  sKould  wear  gowns,  under 
pain  of  expulsion.  For  a  number  of  years, 
as  many  of  the  students  as  the  College  would 
hold,  were,  certainly,  housed  inside  its  gates. 
But  the  custom  gradually  went  into  disuse, 
and  it  has  never  since  prevailed. 

The  rent  of  chambers  in  that  early  period 
was  four  pounds,  if  the  student  demanded  a 
bed  to  himself;  two  pounds  each  person,  if 
two  occupied  one  couch.  In  later  times, 
according  to  "Jupiter,"  otherwise  Alexan- 
der, Carlyle,  "living  in  Edinburgh  con- 
tinued still  [1743]  to  be  wonderfully  cheap; 
as  there  were  ordinaries  for  young  gentlemen 
at  fourpence  a  head,  for  a  very  good  dinner 
of  broth  and  beef,  and  a  roast  and  potatoes, 
every  day,  with  fish  three  or  four  times  a 
week ;  and  all  the  small-beer  that  was  called 
for  until  the  cloth  was  removed." 

Within  a  few  years,  an  institution  calling 
itself  "University  Hall"  has  opened  a  very 


OLD  COLLEGE,  EDINBURGH. 


Edinburgh  13 

limited  number  of  houses  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  students  of  both  sexes,  where  are 
bed-rooms,  studies,  common  dining,  and 
recreation,  or  meeting,  rooms.  The  Hall  is 
managed  internally  by  a  committee  of  the 
residents,  elected  by  themselves,  and  by 
each  other,  for  short  terms.  The  board  and 
lodging  cost  comparatively  little.  But, 
naturally,  only  a  few,  of  either  sex,  can  avail 
themselves  of  the  limited  privileges  ex- 
tended. 

This  University  Hall  system,  however,  is 
not  under  the  control  of  the  University 
authorities;  and  it  is,  such  as  it  is,  in  its 
own  small,  recent  way,  almost  the  only  thing 
approaching  to  University  social  home-life 
which  the  University  has  ever  known. 

The  Privy  Council,  in  1695,  recommended 
that  all  masters  and  regents  (regents  were 
professors  in  the  early  days),  and  also  the 
students  of  the  several  universities  of  the 
Kingdom,  should  be  obliged  to  wear  gowns 
during  the  time  of  the  sittings  of  their  col- 
leges. "The  students  to  wear  red  gowns, 


1 4         Scottish  Universities 

that  thereby  they  may  be  discouraged  from 
vageing  or  vice." 

The  recommendation  was  not  adopted  in 
Edinburgh;  nor,  says  Prof.  Andrew  Dalzel, 
in  his  History  of  the  Institution,  was  it  easy 
to  see  what  advantage  could  attend  the 
wearing  of  such  a  badge.  The  students 
were  "discouraged  from  vice  and  vageing" 
by  other  means. 

But  the  professors  at  Edinburgh,  to  this 
day,  lecture,  always,  in  gowns ;  which  is  a 
pleasant,  proper  custom. 

''Vageing,"  it  may  be  observed  here,  is 
defined  by  Jamieson  in  his  Scottish  Diction- 
ary, as  "the  habit  of  strolling  idly"  ;  and  he 
gives  as  his  authority,  Bower's  History  of 
the  University  of  Edinburgh.  Johnson  does 
not  seem  to  have  known  the  word ;  the 
nearest  he  came  to  it  is,  "to  vagary,  to  gad, 
to  remove  often  from  place  to  place."  And 
the  Century  Dictionary  comes  no  nearer  to 
it  than  "vagabond."  "Vageing,"  evi- 
dently, in  the  argot  of  the  present,  was 
"loafing  about." 


(   UN; 
Edinburgh  15 

Some  of  the  early  laws  for  Edinburgh 
undergraduate  guidance  are  worth  recording. 
In  1668,  it  was  enacted,  by  the  regents,  that 
the  censors,  in  their  respective  classes, 
should  observe  such  as  "speak  Scots,  curse, 
swear,  or  have  any  obscene  expressions,  that 
the  regent  may  censure  them,  according  to 
the  degree  of  their  offence."  For  the  sup- 
pression of  tumults,  for  which  the  College 
then  had  a  bad  repute,  it  was  ordained  that 
none  of  the  scholars  should  stand  at  the 
gate,  or  on  the  stairs,  or  in  the  passages  to 
the  classes;  transgressors  to  be  delated, 
every  one  of  them  to  be  fined  two  shillings 
"Scots";  a  "shilling  Scots"  being  of  about 
the  value  of  an  English  penny. 

It  was  also  ordained  that  no  scholar  should 
be  troublesome  to  another,  by  shouldering 
or  tossing ;  for,  seeing  these  were  the  occa- 
sions of  fighting,  whosoever  should  be  found 
guilty  of  tossing  would  be  amerced  in  four 
shillings ' '  Scots. "  ' '  If  a  scholar  should  strike 
his  neighbour,  he  was  chastised,  according 
to  the  dement  of  the  fault.  If  he  should  be 


16         Scottish  Universities 

deprehended  playing,  or  carelessly  walking 
up  and  down,  in  any  of  the  courts,  at  the 
time  of  their  meeting  in  their  schools,  for 
every  fault  he  was  mulcted  in  a  shilling 
fine." 

Additional  laws  for  the  College,  made  in 
1701,  provided  that  no  student,  "during 
hours,"  should  walk  idly  in  the  courts; 
should  play  at  hand-ball,  billiards,  or  bowls, 
or  the  like.  None  were  allowed  to  do,  or 
to  speak,  wickedly,  wrongfully,  or  ob- 
scenely; to  indulge  in  "nasty  talk."  Such 
as  "profaned  God's  sacred  name,  or  vented 
horrid  oaths, ' '  were  to  pay  sixpence  the  first 
time ;  and  thereafter  to  be  severely  chastised. 
All  students  were  to  carry  themselves  re- 
spectfully towards  the  professors;  and  to 
obey  their  professors'  injunctions.  Those 
who  transgressed  were  to  be  fined  first  in  a 
penny;  and  after  in  two  pence.  Students 
were  obliged  to  discourse,  always,  in  Latin ; 
also  to  speak  modestly,  chastely,  courte- 
ously, and  in  no  manner  uncivil  or  quar- 
relsome. If  they  spoke  in  English,  or  "in 


Edinburgh  1 7 

Scots/'  within  the  College,  the  charge  was 
a  penny  for  the  first  offence,  two  pence  for 
every  offence  thereafter.  They  were  ordered 
to  carry  no  guns,  swords,  daggers,  or  such 
arms;  to  throw  no  snow-balls  or  stones  at 
glass  windows,  or  glass  houses,  or  at  walls, 
or  at  seats,  or  at  desks,  or  at  pulpits,  or  at 
anything  else,  or  at  anybody.  They  were  to 
be  discharged  if  they  used  cards,  or  dice,  or 
raffling,  or  any  such  games  of  lottery.  They 
were  not  permitted  to  enter  taverns,  or  ale- 
houses, at  any  time  of  day ;  and  it  was  even 
against  the  rules  for  them  to  walk  the  streets 
of  an  evening ! 

How  far  these  rules  were  enforced,  two 
hundred  years  ago,  especially  "after  hours," 
when  the  students,  unmarked  by  red  gowns 
and  entirely  unrecognisable,  had  absolute 
freedom  of  the  city,  is  not  now  known. 

Edinburgh,  in  many  respects,  resembles 
the  German,  rather  than  the  English,  or  the 
American,  universities.  The  men  are  scat- 
tered in  lodgings  throughout  the  town; 
they  have  little  of  class  feeling  or  of  social 


1 8          Scottish  Universities 

life  in  common ;  their  ages  vary  greatly ; 
and  "out  of  hours'*  they  are  subject  to  no 
scholastic  discipline  whatever.  They  know, 
personally,  but  few  of  their  fellows,  even  by 
sight;  and  they  feel  none  of  that  love  of 
Alma  Mater,  and  of  that  devotion  to  her 
interests,  which  are  so  strongly  developed 
in  the  men  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and 
in  the  men  of  every  seat  of  learning,  be  it 
large  or  small,  salt-air,  or  fresh-water,  on 
the  western  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  loss  is  that  of  the  Edinburgh  man. 
And  a  great  loss  it  is. 

He  does  not  recognise  the  face  of  a  class- 
mate when  he  meets  him  in  after  life.  He 
has  no  college  colours  to  wear.  He  has  few 
college  songs  to  stir  his  blood;  no  college 
cheer  to  warm  his  heart,  or  to  crack  his 
voice ;  no  intercollegiate  victory,  or  defeat, 
to  rejoice  over,  or  to  try  to  explain  away; 
no  Greek -letter  or  local  college  club  to 
frequent;  no  class  boy  to  pet,  or  to  be 
proud  of.  He  knows  nothing  of  that  en- 
thusiastic college  spirit  which  means  so 


Edinburgh  19 

much,  in  the  New  World,  to  every  man 
who  ever  went  to  college,  even  for  a  single 
term;  which  means  so  much,  also  to  his 
sisters,  and  to  his  cousins,  and  to  his  aunts. 

And  the  loss  is  that  of  the  Edinburgh  man ! 

A  writer  in  the  Scotsman,  in  1884,  said 
that  the  students  at  a  Scottish  university, 
even  at  that  period,  had  little  more  cohesion 
among  themselves  than  the  grains  of  a  sifting 
sand-heap.  They  drift  into  the  same  classes, 
he  added ;  but  when  the  lecture  is  over,  they 
fold  up  their  note-books  like  the  Arab,  and  ^-m^t  u 
as  silently  steal  away.  There  was  then,  he  U  — 
complained,  no  common  place  of  meeting, 
where  a  man  might  look  upon  the  counten- 
ance of  his  friend,  or  hear  the  sound  of  a 
voice,  which,  in  the  class-room,  must  of  a 
necessity  be  still.  And  he  concluded  by 
saying,  that  "it  did  not  need  natural  or 
acquired  misanthropy  for  a  man  to  pass 
through  an  entire  university  course,  and 
take  a  degree,  without  knowing  a  single 
fellow-student  better  than  he  did  on  the 
day  of  his  first  matriculation." 


20          Scottish  Universities 

This  was  before  the  establishment  of  the 
University  Union,  based,  in  a  way,  up- 
on the  Union  Society  of  Oxford.  "The 
Royal  Medical,"  "The  Speculative,"  "The 
Dialectic,"  "The  Diagnostic,"  "The  Philo- 
mathic,"  "The  Chemical,"  "The  Theologi- 
cal," "The  Philosophical,"  and  even  "The 
Total  Abstinence  "  societies,  many  of  them 
of  comparatively  recent  date,  were  already 
in  existence,  but  small  in  membership ;  and, 
as  their  names  imply,  limited  and  peculiarly 
special  in  scope.  The  Union,  without 
effacing  or  absorbing  these,  is  universal.  It 
is  open  to  all  students  and  graduates  of  the 
University;  and  "its  purpose  is  the  pro- 
vision and  maintenance  of  means  of  social 
and  academic  intercourse  for  its  members." 
It  is  a  students'  club,  with  a  very  small 
entrance  fee,  and  small  annual  dues.  It  has 
a  commodious  building  of  its  own;  it  has 
all  the  conveniences  of  a  club  proper ;  with 
the  addition  of  a  large  hall,  in  which  lectures 
are  given,  and  in  which  debates  are  held. 
But  it  is  still  in  its  extreme  infancy ;  and  it 


Edinburgh 


21 


is,  in  its  dull,  cold,  social  way,  about  all 
that  the  very  modern  Edinburgh  man  has 
to  cling  to,  for  University  entertainment  and 
amusement.  It  was  absolutely  unknown  to 
the  Edinburgh  man  of  two  decades  ago. 
And  the  loss  is  that  of  the  Edinburgh  man. 
Another  interesting,  and  also  very  modern 
feature  of  the  undergraduate  life,  in  Edin- 
burgh, is  the  Students'  Representative 
Council,  instituted  in  1883-4,  "to  represent 
the  feeling  and  opinions  of  students,  as  oc- 
casion might  arise,  and  to  mediate  between 
them  and  the  University  authorities."  It 
consists  of  eighty  members,  elected  by  the 
students  direct ;  and  of  fifty-two  members, 
chosen  by  the  different  societies  of  students ; 
and,  in  a  measure,  it  controls  and  governs 
the  Union.  One  of  its  interesting  features 
is  a  weekly  publication  called  The  Student, 
which  is  devoted  to  "University  Notes,"  to 
"Athletic  Notes,"  and  to  "Society  Notes"; 
these  last  relating,  not  to  society  in  general, 
with  a  capital  "S,"  but  to  the  College  so- 
cieties and  associations  mentioned  above. 


22          Scottish  Universities 

The  graduates  have  space  assigned  to  them, 
in  which  they  are  invited  to  indulge  in  remi- 
niscences, personal  and  otherwise.  Books 
are  reviewed,  and  local  and  general  musical 
and  dramatic  affairs  receive  a  certain  amount 
of  attention.  It  is  the  only  periodical  of  its 
kind  peculiar  to  the  University,  as  a  uni- 
versity ;  and  it  takes  the  place  of  the  Literary 
Magazines,  the  Alumni  Weeklies,  the  daily 
papers,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  journals 
in  which  American  undergraduates  indulge 
themselves;  and  out  of  which  they  get  so 
much  comfort,  and  do  so  much  good  to 
themselves  and  to  each  other. 

The  Students'  Representative  Council  is 
not  confined  to  Edinburgh  alone  ;  it  exists  in 
the  other  institutions  as  well.  A  joint  com- 
mittee of  these  Councils  has  published  The 
Scottish  Student's  Song-Book,  containing,  in 
a  single  volume,  all  the  lays  and  lyrics  of  all 
the  universities.  This  volume  is  exceedingly 
comprehensive ;  for  it  embraces  the  national 
airs,  and  the  folk-music  of  every  quarter  of 
the  globe,  from  The  Russian  Anthem  to  The 


Edinburgh  23 

Old  Cabin  Home.  The  college  songs,  proper 
and  special,  are  not  very  many  or  very 
original,  or  very  brilliant,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  Professor  Blackie  has  furnished 
some  of  the  words.  They  are  set  to  familiar 
airs,  ancient  and  modern,  from  Bonny  Dundee 
to  Upidee,  from  John  Brown  s  Body  to  Sally 
in  Our  Alley.  Sometimes  they  are  purely 
personal;  but  usually  they  are  general  in 
character.  One  verse  from  a  production 
entitled  Our  Noble-Selves,  will  give  a  fair  idea 
of  the  style  of  composition  of  the  whole; 
and  will,  also,  show  the  broadness  of  the 
college  spirit. 

"  They  talk  about  Arenas  of  the  South, 
And  eulogise  the  Isis  and  the  Cam, 
While  they  glory  in  a  Person  or  a  Routh, 

The  Harvard,  and  the  Yale,  of  Uncle  Sam. 
And  possibly  our  rivals  may  amass 

More  knowledge  than   the  College  by  the 

Dee, 
But  none  of  them  can  possibly  surpass 

Our  weather,  and  our  heather,  and  our  Sea." 

No    college    in    the    world    can    surpass 


24          Scottish  Universities 

Aberdeen  in  the  matter  of  sea  and  heather, 
perhaps ;  but  very  few  universities  will  care  to 
attempt  to  rival  her  in  the  matter  of  climate. 

The  Constitution  of  the  University  of 
Edinburgh  seems,  to  the  lay  mind,  to  be  a 
most  complicated  document.  As  it  is  en- 
tirely unlike  anything  of  its  kind  known  on 
the  western  side  of  the  Atlantic,  some  short, 
but  comprehensive,  digest  of  its  scope  and 
contents,  dug  out  of  the  annual  University 
Calendar,  may  be  of  interest  here.  We 
learn,  in  a  vague  sort  of  way,  that  the  Uni- 
versity is  a  corporation  consisting  of  a 
Chancellor,  of  a  Vice-Chancellor,  of  a  Rector, 
of  a  Principal  (or  President),  of  professors, 
of  registered  graduates  and  alumni,  and  of 
matriculated  students.  The  Chancellor,  we 
are  told,  is  elected  by  the  General  Council 
"for  life."  Changes  in  the  ordinances  and 
in  University  arrangements,  proposed,  or 
approved  by  the  University  Court,  must 
receive  his  sanction.  And  he  confers 
degrees. 

The  General  Council  and  the  University 


Edinburgh  25 

Court  have  many  pages  of  the  Calendar  de- 
voted to  their  functions.  The  University 
Court  consists  of  the  Rector,  the  Principal, 
the  Lord  Provost  of  Edinburgh,  and  of  a 
number  of  "Assessors,  "variously  appointed. 
The  General  Council  is  composed  of  the 
Chancellor,  of  the  members  of  the  Univer- 
sity Court,  of  professors,  and  of  registered 
graduates.  The  Vice-Chancellor,  nominated 
by  the  Chancellor,  may,  in  absence  of  the 
Chancellor,  confer  degrees ;  but  he  may  not 
discharge  any  other  of  the  Chancellor's 
duties.  The  Principal,  formerly  elected  by 
the  Town  Council,  but  now  by  the  curators, 
also  holds  his  office  ' '  for  life. ' '  The  curators 
number  seven,  three  nominated  by  the  Uni- 
versity Court,  and  four  by  the  Town  Council. 
They  retain  the  position  for  three  years. 

The  Rector  is  elected  by  the  matriculated 
students  of  the  University,  on  such  days  in 
October,  or  November,  as  may  be  fixed  by 
the  University  Court ;  and  he  is  president  of 
that  particular  body.  All  of  which  sounds 
most  complex  and  perplexing. 


26          Scottish  Universities 

Rev.  Menzies  Fergusson,  in  an  interesting 
little  book  entitled  My  College  Days,  pub- 
lished in  1887,  tells  the  story  of  a  Rectorial 
contest  in  Edinburgh  when  he  was  a  student 
there,  some  twenty  years  ago.  The  candi- 
dates that  year  were  men  of  high  standing 
in  the  Whig  and  Tory  parties,  but  seem- 
ingly of  small  importance  in  the  world  of 
letters.  Young  Fergusson,  a  Bejan,  just  ma- 
triculated, a  stranger  to  Edinburgh,  and  to 
almost  every  person  in  Edinburgh,  and 
quite  indifferent  as  to  candidates  and  to 
parties,  was  at  once  beset  by  students,  en- 
thusiastic on  one  side  or  the  other,  to  de- 
clare his  intentions.  He  does  not  say  for 
whom  he  voted ;  but  he  describes  the  elec- 
tioneering proceedings  in  a  graphic  way. 
Meetings  innumerable  were  held;  speeches 
without  number  were  made ;  squibs  and  car- 
toons were  scattered  broadcast ;  songs  were 
composed,  and  circulated,  and  sung ;  the 
rival  factions  formed  themselves  into  oppos- 
ing battalions,  and  gathered  around  the 
statue  of  Sir  David  Brewster,  in  the  great 


Edinburgh  27 

Court-yard,  where  were  shouting,  and  push- 
ing, and  hauling,  and  some  mauling  done, 
to  the  serious  damage  of  hats  and  clothes, 
although  only  one  warrior  seems  to  have  re- 
ceived personal  injuries ;  and  he,  it  is  gravely 
reported,  "soon  recovered  from  his  swoon." 

After  the  battle,  both  sides  united  in  a 
torchlight  procession,  marching  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  in  perfect  harmony  and  good 
humour,  to  do  honour  to  the  new  Lord 
Rector,  who  was  to  hold  his  office  for  the 
customary  three  years. 

The  only  persons  who  appear  to  have 
profited  by  the  contests  were  the  tailors  and 
the  hatters;  and  the  greatest  sufferers,  nat- 
urally, were  the  parents  and  guardians,  who 
had  to  pay  the  bills. 

All  this  drew  the  student-body  closer  to- 
gether, for  the  time ;  but  it  does  not  appear 
to  have  inspired  anything  like  what  the 
Americans  call  "class  feeling"  or  "college 
spirit." 

One  of  the  best  pictures  extant  of  what 
Scottish  university  life  was,  and  was  not,  a 


28          Scottish  Universities 

hundred  years  ago,  is  painted  by  Froude  in 
the  first  volume  of  his  Life  of  Thomas  Car- 
lyle.  He  said,  in  effect,  and  in  part,  that  in 
English  ears,  the  words,  "college  days" 
suggest  splendid  buildings,  luxurious  rooms, 
and  rich  endowments,  as  the  reward  of 
successful  industry.  In  Oxford  and  in 
Cambridge,  the  students  were  young  men 
between  nineteen  and  twenty-three,  who 
enjoyed  themselves  in  every  possible  social 
way,  and  who  spent  handsome  allowances. 
These  allowances,  on  an  average,  were 
double  in  amount  per  annum  the  sum  which 
the  father  of  Thomas  Carlyle  made  in  any 
one  year  of  his  hard-working  life. 

The  universities  north  of  the  Tweed,  on 
the  other  hand,  in  Carlyle's  time,  the  second 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  had  no 
prizes  to  offer,  no  fellowships,  no  scholar- 
ships; they  had  nothing  whatever  to  give 
but  an  education,  and  the  teaching  of  severe 
lessons  in  the  discipline  of  poverty  and  self- 
denial. 

The  students,  as  a  rule,  were  the  sons  of 


THOMAS  CARLYLE. 


Edinburgh  29 

poor  parents  who  realised,  exactly,  the  ex- 
pense of  a  college  course,  and  who  knew  how 
well,  or  how  ill,  it  could  be  afforded.  And 
the  lads  went  to  Aberdeen,  to  Edinburgh, 
to  Glasgow,  or  to  St.  Andrews  with  a  fixed 
purpose  of  reaching  the  very  best  of  results, 
at  the  lowest  possible  money  cost. 

They  selected,  generally,  the  institution 
nearest  to  their  own  humble  homes,  in  order 
to  save  charges  of  travel ;  they  often  walked 
to  their  destination,  in  order  to  avoid  coach- 
hire  ;  they  had  no  one  to  look  after  them  on 
their  journey,  or  at  their  journey's  end. 
They  entered  their  own  names  on  their  col- 
lege books;  they  found  lodgings  for  them- 
selves, in  some  near-by  street  or  alley ;  they 
not  infrequently  cooked  their  own  food, 
which  was  brought  with  them,  or  sent  after 
them,  in  the  carts  of  local  carriers;  some- 
times they  made  their  own  beds,  and  washed 
their  own  dishes  and  their  own  clothes ;  and 
they  were  rarely  over  fourteen  years  of  age 
when  their  college  careers  began.  They 
formed  very  few,  but  always  economical, 


30          Scottish  Universities 

friendships ;  they  shared  their  rooms,  and 
their  meals,  and  their  thoughts  with  each 
other ;  they  had  their  simple  little  clubs  and 
societies  for  conversation  or  discussion ;  they 
read  hard,  they  worked  hard ;  hard  was  their 
life.  Their  very  poverty  kept  them  out  of 
debt,  and  out  of  temptation  to  unwholesome 
habits  and  amusements,  and  when  the  term 
was  over,  they  walked  home  to  their  own 
firesides,  to  make  money  enough,  during 
the  vacation,  by  teaching,  or  even  by  field- 
labour,  to  carry  them  back  to  their  uni- 
versity, and  to  keep  them  there  for  another 
session. 

As  a  training  in  self-dependence,  said 
Froude,  no  better  education  could  have 
been  found  in  the  British  Islands.  And 
he  asserted  that  if  the  teaching  could  have 
been  as  good  as  was  the  discipline  of  char- 
acter, the  Scottish  universities  might  have 
competed  with  any  in  the  world.  But  he  de- 
clared that  the  teaching  was  the  weak  point. 
There  were  no  provisions  made  by  the  col- 
leges to  furnish  personal  instruction,  as  in  the 


Edinburgh  31 

sister  institutions  in  England  ;  the  professors 
were,  individually,  excellent;  but  they  had 
to  lecture  to  large  classes,  and  they  had  no 
time  to  attend,  particularly,  to  any  individual 
student.  The  Scottish  universities,  he  con- 
cluded, were  nothing  more  than  opportuni- 
ties offered  to  lads  who  were  able,  and  ready, 
to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunities  which 
they  sought,  or  which  came  in  their  way. 

This,  no  doubt,  was  true  enough  when  the 
lad  Carlyle,  towards  the  close  of  his  thir- 
teenth year,  tramped  a  hundred  miles  from 
Ecclefechan  to  Edinburgh  in  1809;  and,  in 
a  measure,  it  is  true  now ;  but  it  is  not  the 
whole  truth,  and  the  four  Scottish  universi- 
ties to-day  hold  their  own,  very  nobly, 
among  the  modern  universities  of  the  world. 

The  Rev.  James  Sharp,  Minister  of  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  at  Mussel- 
burgh,  near  Edinburgh,  in  a  personal  note, 
has  kindly  set  down  for  the  benefit  of  the 
readers  of  this  volume  the  story  of  his  own 
student  life  in  Edinburgh,  during  full  courses 
of  Arts  and  Divinity,  from  the  autumn  of 


32          Scottish  Universities 

1877  until  the  summer  of  1885.     His  words 
are  quoted  here  in  full : 

"  To  the  intending  student  in  my  time,"  he 
writes,  "  two  ways  of  finding  out  how  to  make  a 
start  at  the  University  were  available.  To  wit 
— from  a  student  who  had  already  been  there, 
or  from  the  University  Calendar,  the  intricacies 
of  which  presupposed  graduation  for  the  full 
understanding  of  the  same. 

"A  considerable  railway  journey,  in  most 
cases,  to  an  unknown  city  was  necessary. 
Never  seen  Edinburgh  before?  No?  Go  in 
the  daylight,  leave  your  box  at  the  station,  and 
then  hunt  for  lodgings.  After  weary  wander- 
ings, you  venture  to  ring  the  bell  of  the  base- 
ment door  of  a  tenement  house,  in  the  windows 
of  which  you  have  seen  the  ticket  of  strange 
and  familiar  device,  —  'Lodgings  to  Let,  for 
Single  Gentlemen';  with  another  to  keep  it 
company,  containing  the  announcement,  'Man- 
gling Done  Here.'  In  our  case,"  says  Mr. 
Sharp,  "the  door  was  opened  by  a  widow  lady 
who  smiled  upon  her  innocent  country  victims. 
We  were  shown  the  establishment,  and  we  fixed 
upon  a  parlour  and  a  bed-room,  two  of  us  'dig- 
ging' together.  The  price  for  each,  with  board, 
was  about  twelve  shillings  a  week.  'But  before 
we  bargain,'  said  the  now  businesslike  landlady, 


Edinburgh  33 

*I  want  to  ken  what  kind  o'  students  ye  are.' 
'  Oh, '  we  replied,  '  we  will  try  to  give  you  as 
little  trouble  as  possible.'  'But  are  ye  Medical 
or  Deveenity?'  'We  are  just  entering  Arts.' 
'Aye!  ye  have  plenty  o'  arts  about  ye.  But  it  's 
a  'richt.  I  can  manage  Medicals:  but  those 
Deveenities  are  wild  deevils!  ' 

"  Back  to  the  station  for  our  boxes  was  our 
next  step.  These  boxes,  among  other  necessary 
things,  contained  scones,  bannocks,  jam,  and 
the  like;  the  forethought  of  a  kind  mother  who 
realised  how  much  her  laddie  would  miss  these 
home-comforts  in  the  Capital. 

"  Next  morning  we  speered  our  way  to  the 
University,  and  arriving  there,  we  entered  its 
portals  with  trembling  steps.  The  bedellus  was 
six  feet  four  inches  in  height;  and  we  cried  up 
to  him  to  direct  us  to  the  Matriculation  Office. 
This  haughty  beadel  is  believed  to  have  spoken 
invariably  of  the  College  Staff  as  '  We  and  the 
ither  professors.'  The  matriculation  fee  was 
one  pound,  one  shilling;  and  the  card  we  re- 
ceived gave  us  entrance  to  any  class.  For  at  that 
time,  there  were  no  entrance  examinations  to 
the  University.  I  chose  the  Arts  course,  as 
qualifying  me  for  Divinity.  The  fee  for  each 
class  was  three  guineas;  and  the  occasion  of 
paying  that  fee  was  the  one  opportunity  the 
student  had  of  speaking  to  his  professor,  unless 


34          Scottish  Universities 

the  student  was  called  to  the  professor's  room 
for  misbehaviour.  The  classes  contained  some 
two  hundred  men  each;  so  that  it  was  difficult 
for  the  teacher  to  know,  by  name,  or  by  face, 
more  than  a  very  few  of  the  taught;  and  he  sel- 
dom attempted  to  do  more  than  that.  Only  one 
Professor  (Calderwood),  during  the  whole  Arts 
course,  invited  us  to  his  house,  and  not  many 
went ;  so  unsocial  and  so  uncouth  is  the  average 
Scottish  youth.  This  Professor  [Calderwood] 
knew  almost  every  student  by  name;  and  he 
never  passed  any  of  us  in  the  streets  without  re- 
cognition. But  he  was  considered  very  singular! 

"  There  were  several  debating  societies  which 
met  in  the  evenings,  in  one  of  the  class-rooms; 
but  they  were  not  largely  attended.  This,  for 
all  that,  was  the  only  means  whereby  we  could 
have  any  association  with  each  other,  when  the 
studies  of  the  day  were  over.  There  was  no 
Union  then,  such  as  there  is  now.  We  scattered 
in  all  directions  to  get  our  luncheons ;  and  we 
generally  dined  in  our  lodgings,  at  the  close  of 
the  College-day's  work. 

' '  There  was  really  no  student  social  life.  The 
most  of  the  time  in  the  evenings  was  spent  in 
lonely  study,  at  home,  preparing  for  the  classes 
on  the  coming  days.  The  undergraduate  was 
cast  upon  the  city  without  a  soul  to  care  for  him. 
Sometimes  a  minister  would  call  upon  him;  and 


Edinburgh  35 

occasionally,  if  he  were  serious-minded,  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  would  get 
hold  of  him  and  put  him  in  the  way  of  making 
friends  of  the  right  sort.  On  Sundays  there 
was  no  Church  service  which  was  especially 
adapted  to  him  or  to  his  wants.  There  is  no 
College  chapel  in  Edinburgh. 

"  In  the  Theological  Faculty,  when  I  reached 
that,  there  was  more  sociability.  The  classes 
were  small,  and  the  professors,  having  all  been 
ministers  themselves,  took  a  particular  interest 
in  the  pupils,  who  were  going  forward  to  the 
ministry.  Every  one  of  the  divinity  students 
was  familiar  with,  and  familiar  to,  his  professor; 
and  was  made  welcome  at  his  professors'  homes. 

"  Great  improvements  have  taken  place  in 
Edinburgh,  since  my  time,  and  in  many  ways. 
The  Union  brings  the  men  more  closely  together, 
and  there  are  now  students'  cricket  clubs,  foot- 
ball clubs,  tennis  clubs,  golf  clubs,  and  the  like. 
But,  so  far  as  I  know,  there  is  no  further  ad- 
vance of  the  undergraduates  towards  personal 
contact  with  their  professors. 

"  Perhaps  the  philosophy  of  the  whole  thing  is 
this.  The  Scotch  are  gregarious  in  every  coun- 
try save  their  own.  They  do  not  care  for  much 
sociability.  At  least  those  lads  do  not,  who  are 
away  from  their  own  parishes.  The  Scottish 
student,  generally,  is  drawn  from  a  class  of  the 


36          Scottish  Universities 

population  which  has  hard  fights  to  make  both 
ends  meet.  He  must  work  with  all  his  might  to 
obtain  a  bursary  [or  scholarship],  and  thus  to 
save  his  father's  pockets  and  his  mother's  scones. 
"  We  used  to  get  a  holiday  from  the  Theologi- 
cal Faculty  on  the  first  Monday  of  every  month. 
This  was  called  'Meal  Monday,'  because  it 
enabled  the  students  to  go  home  to  replenish 
their  barrels.  Dear  old  times!  No  luxuries. 
The  liberal  arts,  sciences,  and  theology  were 
cultivated  on  oatmeal,  with  an  occasional  glass 
of  beer  on  a  Saturday  night." 

"  I  do  not  remember  anything  more  that  is 
worth  saying,"  concludes  Mr.  Sharp.  But 
he  has  remembered  a  good  deal  that  is  worth 
hearing,  concerning  the  life  in  his  own  Uni- 
versity not  so  very  many  years  ago.  There 
is  not  space  enough  here  to  enumerate  all  the 
men  of  letters  who  have  made  the  Univer- 
sity of  Edinburgh,  or  whom  the  University 
of  Edinburgh  has  made.  Its  list  of  gradu- 
ates is  as  long  as  is  the  Moral  Law,  which  it 
has  taught  to  its  graduates,  and  which  most 
of  its  graduates  have  taught,  in  some  form 
or  other,  to  the  world  at  large.  They  have 


Edinburgh  37 

turned  out  songs,  those  Edinburgh  men,  and 
they  have  turned  out  sermons,  innumerable; 
sermons  predominating.  But  they  have 
turned  out  very  little  that  has  not  lived,  or 
that  is  not  worth  living. 

Concerning  some  of  the  distinguished  sons 
of  Edinburgh,  as  showing  what  they  did  in 
the  University,  and  what  the  University,  in 
its  own  peculiar  way,  did  for  them,  a  few 
words  may  be  said.  These  words  will  illus- 
trate further,  perhaps,  the  scope  and  the 
methods,  the  manners  and  the  customs,  of 
the  Institution  from  the  time  of  its  founda- 
tion, down  to  a  period  within  the  memory 
of  men  still  living. 

Almost  nothing  is  known  of  the  early  life 
of  William  Drummond  of  Hawthornden, 
the  friend  of  "Royal  Ben"  Jonson,  and 
probably  the  earliest  literary  son  of  his  Alma 
Mater,  except  the  fact  that  he  received  the 
rudiments  of  his  education  at  the  High 
School,  in  Edinburgh,  where  he  is  said  to 
have  displayed  precocious  signs  of  worth  and 
genius.  In  due  time,  he  took  his  degree 


38          Scottish  Universities 

of  M.A.  after  the  usual  course  of  study 
in  Edinburgh  University.  He  was  well 
versed  in  the  metaphysical  learning  of  the 
period;  and  he  devoted  himself,  even  at 
college,  to  the  study  of  the  classical  authors 
of  antiquity;  which  may  account  for  the 
purity  and  elegance  of  his  style.  The  first 
edition  of  his  Poems  was  published  in  1616, 
three  years  before  the  memorable  visit  of 
Jonson,  and  when  Drummond  was  over 
thirty.  How  far  he  lisped  in  numbers,  be- 
fore he  was  graduated,  is  not  clear ;  but  how 
much  he  loved  his  College  has  been  shown 
in  his  liberal  bequests  to  its  library. 

James  Thomson  made  his  first  appearance 
in  Edinburgh  on  horseback,  riding  behind  a 
servant  of  his  father.  He  walked  home  the 
next  day,  alone,  not  liking  the  looks  of 
things ;  and  he  is  said  to  have  reached  the 
paternal  manse,  some  fifty  or  sixty  miles 
distant,  before  the  return  of  the  servant  and 
the  horse.  His  second  visit  was  more  pro- 
longed. Somewhat  contrary  to  his  own  in- 
clination, he  was  induced  to  study  divinity ; 


WILLIAM    DRUMMOND. 


Edinburgh  39 

but  being  rebuked  by  a  professor  for  the 
flowery  and  poetic  nature  of  a  probationary 
exercise  delivered  in  the  hall,  he  retired  from 
the  consideration  of  theology  in  disgust. 

During  his  undergraduate  days,  he  tutored 
the  son  of  an  earl,  and  contributed  certain 
verses  to  a  poetical  volume  called  The  Edin- 
borough  Miscellany.  A  friend  of  the  family, 
"finding  him  unlikely  to  do  well  in  any  other 
pursuit,  advised  him  to  try  his  fortune  as 
a  poet  in  London,  and  promised  him  some 
countenance  and  support. ' '  Accordingly  he 
journeyed  South,  with  almost  nothing  in  his 
pocket  but  the  first  poem  of  The  Seasons — 
Winter,  which  he  sold  for  three  guineas. 
It  consisted,  originally,  of  four  hundred  and 
thirteen  lines,  and  was  published  when  its 
author  was  twenty-six  years  of  age. 

A  penny-ha'-penny  a  line  does  not  seem 
to  be  a  very  great  price  for  a  poem  which 
has  lived  so  long  as  has  this  particular  Winter 
of  Thomson's.  Atitumn,  "nodding  o'er  the 
yellow  plain,"  was  written  later,  and  brought 
a  little  larger  sum. 


4Q          Scottish  Universities 

David  Mallet  was  a  friend  and  classmate  of 
Thomson's  at  Edinburgh.  He  must  have 
been  a  hardworking  and  a  diligent  student, 
for  his  professors  recommended  him,  and 
cordially,  as  a  private  tutor  to  the  children 
of  the  Duke  of  Montrose.  This  was  an  un- 
usual proceeding,  except  when  accompanied 
by  unusual  ability ;  especially  in  the  case  of 
a  man  absolutely  obscure  of  birth,  Mallet's 
father  being  the  keeper  of  a  small  public- 
house,  on  the  bord-ers  of  the  Highlands. 
The  son  seems  to  have  been  sensitive  upon 
the  subject  of  his  extraction ;  for  he  at- 
tempted, carefully,  to  conceal  from  the  world 
all  the  particulars  of  his  origin,  and  of  his 
early  career,  including  even  the  story  of 
his  college  life.  He  was  a  poet  of  some 
contemporary  merit ;  and  he  disputed  with 
Thomson  the  authorship  of  Rule  Britannia, 
contained  in  a  play  called  Alfred,  which  they 
wrote  in  collaboration.  It  is  rather  interest- 
ing to  contemplate  the  fact  that  one  of  the 
various  British  national  anthems  is  claimed 
by  two  Scotsmen,  both  of  the  University  of 


Edinburgh  41 

Edinburgh.  But  the  song  has  lasted  nearly 
a  couple  of  centuries;  and  the  Britons  of 
both  sides  of  the  Border,  who  still  assert  that 
they  "rule  the  waves,"  have  not  yet  become 
tired  of  saying  so  in  the  words  of  Mallet,  or 
of  Thomson. 

"I  passed  through  the  ordinary  course  of 
education  with  success,"  wrote  David  Hume, 
on  his  death-bed,  in  1776,  "and  was  seized, 
early,  with  a  passion  for  literature,  which  has 
been  the  ruling  passion  of  my  life,  and  the  great 
source  of  enjoyment.  My  studious  disposition, 
my  sobriety,  and  my  industry  gave  my  family  a 
notion  that  the  law  was  a  proper  profession  for 
me,  but  I  found  an  unsurmountable  aversion  to 
everything  but  the  pursuits  of  philosophy  and 
general  learning." 

Elsewhere  in  this  interesting  fragment  of 
autobiography,  Hume  remarked,  that  "it  is 
difficult  for  a  man  to  speak  long  of  himself, 
without  vanity,"  which  will  account  for  his 
allusions  to  his  own  industry,  to  his  own 
sobriety,  and  to  his  studious  disposition; 
all  of  them  most  admirable  qualities  in  an 
undergraduate,  when  they  are  exploited  by 


42          Scottish  Universities 

somebody  else.  However,  Hume  seems  to 
have  exhibited  every  one  of  these  qualities 
while  a  student  at  Edinburgh  University, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  his  contem- 
poraries; and  to  have  been  a  credit  to  his 
Alma  Mater. 

Hugh  Blair,  Doctor  of  Divinity,  must  be 
considered  here  as  a  literary  landmark  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  because  his  con- 
temporaries looked  upon  him  not  only  as  one 
of  the  most  eminent  of  divines,  but  also  as 
one  of  the  most  illustrious  "Cultivators  of 
Polite  Letters"  who  figured  in  the  cultivated 
eighteenth  century.  His  father  perceived, 
early  in  the  boy's  career,  that  the  boy  pos- 
sessed seeds  of  genius :  and  the  boy,  in  1730, 
when  he  was  twelve  years  of  age,  was  sent 
to  the  College  in  order  to  have  the  seeds  of 
genius  watered  and  developed.  He  is  said 
to  have  remained  in  the  University  for  eleven 
years,  studying  diligently  all  the  time ;  and 
he  did  not  receive  his  degree  of  M.  A.  until 
1739.  He  devoted  himself  particularly  to 
history  in  his  undergraduate  days;  and,  with 


Edinburgh  43 

some  of  his  youthful  associates,  he  devised 
and  constructed  a  most  comprehensive 
scheme  of  chronological  tables,  for  recording, 
in  their  proper  places,  all  important  and  far- 
reaching  events.  This  work,  a  very  serious 
and  unusual  production  for  undergraduate 
pens,  was  afterwards  elaborated  by  another 
hand,  and  given  to  the  public  as  the  once 
familiar  Chronological  History  of  the  World. 

Blair  was  not  strong  of  health  in  his  boy- 
hood, and  he  was  better  able,  therefore,  to 
resist  those  attractions  of  physical  excite- 
ment which  were  to  be  found  outside  the 
class-rooms.  In  later  life,  he  was  so  success- 
ful in  his  lectures  on  English  composition, 
before  the  University,  that  George  Third, 
or  his  Ministers,  erected  and  endowed  for 
him  a  special  Chair  of  Rhetoric  and  Belles- 
Lettres,  making  him  " Regius  Professor" 
thereof,  with  a  handsome  salary  and  pension. 

On  account  of  his  provincial  accent,  and 
of  certain  defects  in  the  organs  of  pro- 
nunciation, we  are  told  that  his  sermons  and 
lectures  were  better  in  print  than  on  the 


44          Scottish  Universities 

platform ;  and  that,  thanks  to  his  pension, 
he  was  probably  the  first  clergyman  who 
ever  "set-up  "  a  carriage  in  Scotland! 

John  Home,  called  in  the  encyclopedias 
"an  eminent  dramatic  poet,"  was  the  author 
of  one  eminently  successful  tragedy,  Doug- 
las, and  of  three  less  popular  tragedies, 
Alonzo,  Alfred,  and  The  Fatal  Discovery, 
which  are  now  altogether  forgotten. 

He  was  born  on  the  banks  of  the  Firth  of 
Forth,  and  his  father,  who  was  Town  Clerk 
of  Leith,  is  not  supposed  to  have  had  any 
flocks  of  his  own  to  feed,  outside  the  family 
circle.  Home  was  a  graduate  of  Edinburgh, 
where  his  ability,  his  progress  in  the  study  of 
literature,  and  his  charm  of  manner  made 
him  exceedingly  popular.  His  biographer, 
Mackenzie,  tells  us  that  "his  temper  was  of 
that  warm,  susceptible  kind,  which  is  caught 
by  the  heroic  and  the  tender ;  and  that  his 
favourite  model  of  character  was  the  imagin- 
ary 'Young  Norval'  of  the  play,  upon 
whom  he  attempted  to  form  himself,  a  char- 
acter endowed  with  chivalrous  valour  and 


Edinburgh  45 

romantic  generosity."  He  saw  good  in 
everybody,  put  his  friends  upon  higher 
pedestals  than  Nature  had  built  for  them; 
and  he  liked  to  be  praised  as  much  as  he 
loved  to  bestow  praise  upon  others. 

He  played  the  titular  part  in  the  famous 
amateur  representation  of  Douglas,  described 
in  the  sketch  of  Adam  Ferguson,  given  below. 

An  intimate  friend  of  Home's  at  the  Uni- 
versity was  William  Robertson,  the  his- 
torian. He  entered  college  at  the  age  of 
twelve;  and  he  must  have  distinguished 
himself  there  as  he  distinguished  himself 
everywhere  else.  His  monumental  work 
appeared  before  he  was  forty,  to  the  great 
admiration  and  surprise  of  Horatio  Walpole, 
who  said  that  he  could  not  understand  how 
a  man  whose  spoken  dialect  was  so  uncouth 
to  English  ears,  could  write  such  fine  and 
perfect  English;  forgetting  that  they  teach 
English  in  Edinburgh. 

Robertson  became  Principal  of  the  Uni- 
versity in  1762,  and  he  held  the  position 
until  he  died  thirty-one  years  later.  He 


46          Scottish  Universities 

established  the  Library  Fund,  he  was  very 
instrumental  in  giving  the  University  its 
"New  Buildings,"  and  he  made  the  College 
so  important  in  the  eyes  of  studious  men 
that  he  drew  to  it  many  serious-minded 
undergraduates  from  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 

Adam  Ferguson,  a  graduate  of  St.  An- 
drews, became  Professor  of  Natural  Philo- 
sophy in  Edinburgh  in  1759;  and  in  1764, 
Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy,  a  chair  much 
better  suited  to  his  tastes,  and  to  the  course 
of  study  which  he  had  followed. 

During  these  Edinburgh  days,  he  enjoyed, 
and  ornamented,  the  intellectual  society,  for 
which  the  Northern  Capital  was  distinguished 
in  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
"Edinburgh  is  a  hot-bed  of  genius,"  wrote 
Tobias  Smollett,  in  Humphry  Clinker.  "I 
have  the  good  fortune  to  be  made  acquainted 
with  many  authors  of  the  first  distinction 
[including  Ferguson],  and  I  have  found  them 
all  as  agreeable  in  conversation  as  they  are 
instructive  and  entertaining  in  their  writ- 
ings." 


Edinburgh  47 

Smollett  might  have  added  that  they  were, 
as  well,  sometimes  playful  in  conduct;  for 
there  is  a  tradition  extant  that  the  tragedy 
of  Douglas,  by  the  Rev.  John  Home,  was 
once  produced  in  private  in  Edinburgh,  with 
the  author  in  the  titular  part  and  Adam 
Ferguson  as  "Lady  Randolph."  A  Pro- 
fessor of  Natural,  and  of  Moral,  Philosophy, 
figuring  as  "the  leading  lady"  in  an  amateur 
dramatic  company  of  grave  and  reverend 
college  Dons  must  have  been  an  instructive 
and  entertaining  spectacle  to  any  critical 
undergraduate  who  chanced  to  be  in  the 
audience.  Whether  or  not  the  "Lady  Ran- 
dolph," or  the  "Anna,"  of  the  cast,  the 
latter  played  by  the  Rev.  Hugh  Blair,  was 
in  proper  and  appropriate  female  costume 
on  that  occasion,  is  not  recorded. 

Professor  Ferguson  was  instrumental  in 
bringing  together  the  two  popular  poets  of 
Scotland,  for  the  first  and  only  time.  Walter 
Scott,  a  lad  of  fifteen,  in  1786-87,  had  the 
rare  good  fortune,  a  good  fortune  which  he 
thoroughly  appreciated,  to  be  noticed  by 


48          Scottish  Universities 

Burns  in  Adam  Ferguson's  house.  "Of 
course,"  wrote  Scott,  "we  youngsters  sat 
silent  and  looked  and  listened."  Burns  was 
attracted  by  some  lines  on  the  bottom  of  a 
print  on  the  walls  of  the  room,  and  asked 
who  was  their  author.  Nobody  knew  but 
the  little,  silent,  and  listening  Scott,  who 
whispered  the  information,  "Langhorne." 
"Burns  rewarded  me  with  a  glance  and  a 
word,"  added  Scott,  "which,  though  of 
mere  civility,  I  then  received  and  still  recol- 
lect with  great  pleasure.  ...  I  never 
saw  him  again,  except  in  the  street,  when 
he  did  not  recognise  me,  as  I  could  not  ex- 
pect he  should." 

And  so  the  "glance,"  full  of  reverence  on 
the  one  hand,  and  full  of  sympathy  on  the 
other,  was  returned;  and  Adam  Ferguson's 
house,  to  quote  some  now  forgotten  poet, 
was  ' '  the  spot  where  Robert  Burns  ordained 
Sir  Walter  Scott !" 

A  contemporary  of  these  men  at  the  Uni- 
versity was  John  Witherspoon.  He  became 
President  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  at 


Edinburgh  49 

Princeton,  in  1768;  he  lived  and  dared  to 
sign  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  eight 
years  later;  but  he  has  made  more  record 
for  himself  as  a  teacher  of  youth  in  the  New 
World,  than  as  one  of  the  taught  in  the  Old. 

Dugald  Stewart  was  most  emphatically  a 
university  man.  His  father  being  Professor 
of  Mathematics  at  Edinburgh,  the  boy  was 
born  in  the  house  assigned  to  the  head  of 
the  Mathematical  Faculty,  in  the  very  build- 
ings of  the  College.  At  the  proper  time, 
he  became  a  student  of  his  father ;  later,  he 
was  assistant  to  his  father;  and,  in  1785,  he 
succeeded  Adam  Ferguson  in  the  Chair  of 
Moral  Philosophy.  He  did  not  relinquish 
his  active  duties  in  the  University  until  1810, 
when  he  was  fifty-seven  years  of  age. 

Lord  Cockburn  said  once:  "To  me,  his 
[Dugald  Stewart's]  lectures  were  like  the 
opening  of  the  heavens.  I  felt  that  I  had  a 
soul.  His  noble  views,  imparted  in  glorious 
sentences,  elevated  me  into  a  higher  world." 

Although  Adam  Smith  was  closely  as- 
sociated with  Glasgow,  as  a  student  there  for 

4 


50          Scottish  Universities 

a  few  years,  and  as  a  professor  for  many 
years,  he  lectured  on  belles-lettres  and  on 
rhetoric  at  Edinburgh  in  1748,  when  he  was 
twenty-five  years  of  age. 

Henry  Mackenzie,  "the  Man  of  Feeling," 
was  a  resident  of  the  Edinburgh  of  the  period 
of  Adam  Ferguson  and  Hugh  Blair,  and 
Adam  Smith,  and  Home,  and  Hume,  al- 
though not  of  their  day  at  the  University. 
He  survived  them  all,  living  into  the  third 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  and,  like 
the  rest  of  them,  he  went  in,  and  out,  of 
college  without  leaving  any  very  tangible 
impression  as  an  undergraduate. 

Oliver  Goldsmith,  in  the  minds  of  men,  is 
rarely  associated  with  Edinburgh.  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  still  claims  him  with  pride, 
as  one  of  her  sons.  But  he  went  to  Edin- 
burgh in  the  autumn  of  1/52,  to  take  a 
course  in  medicine  and  anatomy ;  where  he 
distinguished  himself,  chiefly,  by  his  amus- 
ing simplicity  of  character,  and  by  his  curi- 
ous and  entertaining  absence  of  mind.  But 
he  seems  to  have  been  almost  as  fond  of 


Edinburgh  5 1 

chemistry  as  of  fun.  He  was  as  poor  in 
purse  as  he  was  rich  in  the  faculty  of  social 
enjoyment.  Early  in  his  career  he  became 
a  member  of  a  students'  club  called  "The 
Medical  Society,"  where  he  told  inimitable 
Irish  stories,  sang  delightful  Irish  songs,  and, 
probably,  danced  fantastic  Irish  jigs;  mak- 
ing himself  immensely  popular  in  his  own 
particular  circle.  "I  sit  down  and  laugh  at 
the  world  and  at  myself,  one  of  the  most 
ridiculous  objects  in  it,"  he  wrote,  in  one 
of  his  home  letters.  He  is  supposed  to  have 
tried  to  make  a  little  money  by  private 
tuition.  But  he  did  not  find  himself  in 
entire  sympathy  with  Scotland  or  with  the 
Scots,  in  general,  and,  at  the  end  of  eighteen 
months  he  journeyed  to  the  Continent,  to 
finish  his  studies  among  more  congenial 
surroundings.  The  Scots  and  Scotland  left 
but  little  impression  upon  his  literary  work; 
although  he  wrote  from  Leyden  that  logic 
was  by  no  means  taught  so  well  there  as  in 
Edinburgh. 
Another  Edinburgh  man,  concerning  whom 


52          Scottish  Universities 

a  great  deal  is  said,  in  these  days,  and  about 
whom  almost  nothing  is  known,  was  James 
Boswell,  the  author  of  the  Life  of  Samuel 
Johnson,  an  immortal  book,  and,  most  as- 
suredly, a  landmark  in  literature.  He  en- 
tered the  University  at  the  usual  early  age ; 
but  he  distinguished  himself,  particularly, 
outside  the  College  gates,  and  in  a  social 
way.  He  shone  in  high  life,  and  he  was 
particularly  fond  of  the  stage  and  of  stage- 
folk.  While  he  was  still  an  undergraduate, 
he  wrote  the  prologue  for  what  he  supposed 
to  be  an  original  play,  presented  by  a  certain 
dame  of  quality,  who  was  "in  his  set,"  and 
who  wished  to  conceal  her  identity  as  a 
dramatic  author.  When  the  comedy  was 
produced  in  public,  it  proved  to  be  not  only 
a  gross  plagiarism,  but  an  utter  failure.  Both 
the  failure  and  the  plagiarism  were  attributed 
to  Boswell;  and  he  was  gentleman  enough 
to  bear  Lady  Houston's  burden,  and  to  keep 
the  secret,  at  his  own  great  social  expense, 
until  the  Lady,  seeing  the  ridicule  heaped 
upon  him,  was  lady  enough  to  confess  it  all. 


JAMES  BOSWELL. 


Edinburgh  53 

During  his  university  days,  he  began  to 
show  a  taste  for  literary  composition ;  and 
in  an  early  poem  of  his  signed,  in  print,  with 
his  own  initials,  he  thus  speaks,  modestly 
enough,  of  himself: 

"  Boswell  does  women  adore, 

And  never  means  once  to  deceive. 

"  He  has  all  the  bright  fancy  of  youth, 

With  the  judgment  of  forty-and-five. 
In  short,  to  declare  the  plain  truth, 
There  is  no  better  fellow  alive." 

He  was  six-and-forty  when  The  Tour  to 
the  Hebrides  appeared ;  and  no  little  of  the 
bright  fancy  of  his  youth,  perhaps,  was  con- 
tained in  the  Johnson,  published  when  the 
adorer  of  Johnson  was  fifty-one. 

The  two  Scottish  men  of  letters  who  are 
the  most  interesting  and  absorbing  figures 
in  literature,  are  Burns  and  Scott.  Burns 
never  knew  the  advantages  of  a  college  edu- 
cation, or  of  much  schooling  of  any  kind. 
Scott,  for  a  time,  was  a  student  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh.  Burns  was  a  genius, 


54          Scottish  Universities 

but  not,  altogether,  a  gentleman.  Scott 
was  a  gentleman  and  almost  a  genius.  Burns 
wrote  from  the  heart ;  Scott  from  the  heart 
and  from  the  head,  too.  Perhaps  Burns,  as 
a  genius,  was  greater  than  Scott,  and  will 
live  longer.  It  may  be  that  Scott,  all  gentle- 
man and  half  genius,  will  stand  side  by  side 
with  Burns,  "when  the  Judgment-Books  un- 
fold." Mr.  Joseph  Jefferson,  the  player,  in 
his  refutation  of  the  theory  that  there  was 
no  Shakspere,  says,  in  effect — the  quotation 
is  from  memory— that 

' '  The  scholar  Bacon  was  a  man  of  knowledge, 
But  inspiration  does  not  come  from  College!  " 

How  much  of  Scott's  inspiration  was  in- 
spired by  his  short  college  course,  it  is  not 
easy  to  determine.  But  Scott  was  an  Edin- 
burgh man. 

Fortunately  for  the  young  Scott  he  had 
not  so  far  to  walk  to  the  University  as  had 
so  many  of  his  contemporaries,  for  his 
father's  house,  on  George  Square,  was  but 
a  few  steps  away.  And,  unfortunately  for 


Edinburgh  55 

present  interest,  he  had  more  to  say  of  his 
school-days  in  the  bit  of  early  Autobiography 
which  Lockhart  preserved,  than  of  his  col- 
lege life.  He  left  the  high  school,  he  wrote, 
"with  a  great  quantity  of  general  informa- 
tion, ill-arranged,  and  collected  without  sys- 
tem, yet  deeply  impressed  upon  his  mind; 
readily  assorted  by  his  power  of  connection 
and  memory,  and  gilded,"  he  added,  "by  a 
vivid  and  active  imagination."  His  appe- 
tite for  books  was  a  sample,  and  as  indis- 
criminating,  as  it  was  indefatigable;  and  he 
always  felt  that  few  persons  of  his  age  had 
read  so  much  as  he  had  read,  and  to  so  little 
purpose.  The  world  has  good  reason  to  be 
glad  that  he  read  so  much;  and  to  doubt 
that  the  results  were  little ! 

With  this  small  preparation,  he  entered 
the  University  in  1783,  in  the  Humanity 
class,  where  he  confessed  that  he  speedily 
lost  much  that  he  had  learned  before.  He 
might  have  done  better  in  the  Greek  class, 
under  a  better  and  stricter  master,  he 
thought ;  but  he  had  no  knowledge  of  Greek 


56          Scottish  Universities 

to  start  with,  and  falling,  naturally,  behind 
his  fellow-students,  on  that  account  he  saw 
— the  statement  is  his  own — "no  stronger 
means  of  vindicating  his  equality  than  by 
professing  his  contempt  for  the  language, 
and  his  resolution  not  to  learn  it." 

He  made  some  progress  in  ethics;  he 
was  instructed  in  moral  philosophy,  under 
Dugald  Stewart;  and,  to  sum  up  his  aca- 
demical studies,  he  attended  the  classes  in 
history,  and  in  civil  and  municipal  law. 
His  university  course,  therefore,  was  not 
brilliant  or  particularly  creditable,  perhaps, 
because  of  this  more  than  smattering  of  "in- 
spiration "  which  possessed  him.  His  views 
upon  the  subject  of  scholarship,  given  when 
he  was  more  mature  in  mind,  must  be  quoted 
in  full: 


"  If  it  should  ever  fall  to  the  lot  of  youth  to 
peruse  these  pages"  [of  Autobiography],  he 
wrote,  when  he  was  thirty-seven  years  of  age — 
"If  it  should  ever  fall  to  the  lot  of  youth  to 
peruse  these  pages,  let  such  a  reader  remember 
that  it  is  with  deepest  regret  that  I  recollect,  in 


Edinburgh  57 

my  manhood,  the  opportunities  of  learning  which 
I  neglected  in  my  youth;  that  through  every 
part  of  my  literary  career  I  have  felt  pinched 
and  hampered  by  my  own  ignorance ;  and  that  I 
would,  at  this  moment,  give  half  the  reputation 
I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  acquire,  if  by  so 
doing  I  could  rest  the  remaining  part  upon  a 
sound  foundation  of  learning  and  science." 

Scott,  if  he  had  lived  longer,  might  have 
claimed  the  University  as  his  very  cradle. 
He  was  born  "at  the  top,"  of  the  College 
Wynd,  now  called  Guthrie  Street.  The 
house  was  opposite  the  Old  Gate  of  the  Old 
University;  and  it  was  demolished  to  make 
way  for  the  New  University  Buildings. 

Professor  John  Wilson  in  the  University, 
"Kit  North"  out  of  the  University,  took 
the  Chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  1820;  and 
he  occupied  the  chair  for  thirty-two  years. 
There  was  unusual  opposition  to  his  election, 
on  account  of  the  eccentricities  of  his  genius, 
the  recklessness  of  his  temper,  and  the  gen- 
eral lack  of  fixedness  in  his  purpose.  But 
he  was  warmly  supported  by  Walter  Scott, 
who  urged  that  the  position  would  give 


58          Scottish  Universities 

Wilson  "the  consistence  and  steadiness 
which  were  all  he  needed  to  make  him  the 
first  man  of  the  age."  And  thus,  despite 
his  curious  impetuosity,  and  his  carelessness 
of  the  morrow,  he  fought  his  way,  by  sheer 
force  of  talent,  to  an  eminence  of  the  highest 
moral  and  literary  responsibility. 

An  entire  chapter  might  be  devoted  to 
Wilson,  and  a  delightful  task  would  be  the 
writing  of  it,  especially  to  one,  who,  as  a 
very  small  boy  indeed,  remembers  vaguely 
the  familiar  figure,  the  leonine  head  and 
face,  the  tall  and  massive  form,  as  he  saw 
Wilson  stalking  along  Princes  Street  more 
than  once,  with  his  plaid  about  him,  su- 
premely noticeable  among  noticeable  men. 
"John  Wilson,"  said  some  one  of  him  once, 
"was  the  grandest  specimen  of  the  human 
form  I  have  ever  seen,  tall,  perfectly  sym- 
metrical, massive,  majestic,  yet  agile." 

His  last  public  act  was  characteristic  of 
the  man.  Broken  in  health,  old  in  years,  he 
struggled  to  Edinburgh,  in  order  to  record 
his  vote  for  Macaulay,  as  University  Member 


Edinburgh  59 

of  Parliament,  a  man  whom  he  felt  that  he 
had  misjudged  and  misrepresented  in  pre- 
vious years. 

Mungo  Park,  as  a  school-boy  at  Selkirk,  is 
reported  to  have  made  astonishing  progress ; 
not  only  through  his  natural  aptitude ;  but 
because  of  his  great  application  and  industry. 
He  served  as  an  apprentice  to  a  Selkirk  sur- 
geon for  three  years,  before  he  went  to 
Edinburgh,  in  1789,  when  he  was  eighteen. 
There  he  remained  for  three  successive  ses- 
sions, taking  the  regular  medical  course,  de- 
voting himself  particularly  to  botany;  and 
always  working  hard. 

Henry  Brougham  entered  the  University 
of  Edinburgh  in  1792,  at  the  age  of  fourteen. 
He  gave  a  chapter  of  his  Autobiography  to 
the  subject  of  his  college  life,  but  he  treats 
of  his  professors  and  of  their  methods,  say- 
ing nothing  of  his  personal  career,  except 
that  he  devoted  himself  to  mathematics.  It 
was  ten  or  eleven  years  later  when,  in  his 
own  words,  he  perpetrated  certain  "high 
jinks"  in  the  streets  of  the  town.  He 


60          Scottish  Universities 

halted,  with  a  party  of  congenial  friends,  in 
front  of  a  chemist's  shop,  hoisted  himself 
onto  the  shoulders  of  the  tallest  of  his  com- 
panions, "placed  himself  on  the  top  of  the 
doorway,  held  on  by  the  sign,  and  twisted 
off  the  venomous  brazen  serpent,  which 
formed  the  explanatory  announcement  of 
the  business  that  was  carried  on  within." 

What  a  brazen  serpent  had  to  do  with  the 
selling  and  the  compounding  of  drugs  is 
not  very  clear  now;  but,  if  Brougham  saw 
metallic  vipers  after  he  had  started  the  Edin- 
burgh Review,  and  before  he  was  twenty-five, 
it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  he  was  familiar 
with  "high  jinks  of  a  similar  character  in 
his  college  days.  The  twisting  off  of  signs 
seems  to  have  been  an  important  and  a 
necessary  part  of  the  course  of  a  British 
university  man  a  hundred  years  ago.  For- 
tunately that  particular  form  of  mental  cul- 
ture is  seriously  neglected  in  the  curriculum 
of  modern  seats  of  learning  to-day. 

Brougham  was  elected  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh  in  October,  1859. 


Edinburgh  61 

He  delivered  his  Inaugural  Address  the  next 
year.  The  history  of  his  own  times  shows 
that  he  was,  all  his  life,  in  the  habit  of  climb- 
ing social,  intellectual,  and  frivolous  "jinks  " 
of  various  altitudes,  some  of  them,  some- 
times, a  little  higher  than  his  friends  ap- 
proved of,  and  not  always  to  his  own  credit. 
Mrs.  Gordon,  in  her  volume  entitled  The 
Home  Life  of  Sir  David  Brewster,  says  very 
little  about  her  father's  experiences  in  col- 
lege, except  that  his  university  career  was 
marked  by  brilliancy  as  well  as  by  solidity ; 
that  in  1793,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  he  went 
up  to  Edinburgh,  on  foot,  to  be  matricu- 
lated, and  that  it  was  his  custom  to  walk 
backwards,  and  forwards,  from  Jedburgh  to 
Edinburgh,  and  from  Edinburgh  to  Jed- 
burgh,  a  distance  of  forty-five  miles.  In 
Jedburgh  he  was  born  in  1781,  and  in  Jed- 
burgh  he  spent  his  early  years.  It  is  not 
easy  to  think  of  a  Harvard  man,  or  of  a 
Yale  man,  or  of  a  Princeton  man,  of  twelve 
or  fifteen,  as  walking,  at  the  close  of  the  col- 
lege session,  from  his  campus  to  Portsmouth, 


62          Scottish  Universities 

let  us  say,  or  to  Rye,  or  to  Philadelphia;  and 
then,  on  arrival  at  home,  and  before  he  went 
to  bed,  taking  a  walk  of  a  few  miles  more, 
to  talk  things  over  with  the  boys  of  Kittery 
Point,  the  boys  of  New  Rochelle,  or  the 
boys  of  Merion.  Yet  the  young  David 
Brewster  thought  very  little  of  such  a  tramp ; 
and  he  tramped  it  more  than  once,  in  a  single 
day.  If  they  were  not  giants,  in  those  times, 
they  were,  at  least,  pedestrians ;  and  the  ex- 
press-train, the  automobile,  the  trolley,  and 
the  bicycle  are  hardly  in  it.  Their  exercise 
did  not  require  so  much  training  as  foot- 
ball, as  baseball,  or  as  track  athletics;  but 
perhaps  it  told  in  the  end. 

Brewster  as  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Uni- 
versity presided  at  the  installation  of  Lord 
Brougham,  as  Chancellor.  He  was  Principal 
from  1860  until  he  died  in  1868. 

Carlyle,  as  we  have  seen  elsewhere,  tramped 
a  hundred  miles  from  the  paternal  door-step, 
at  Ecclefechan,  to  enter  his  own  name  on 
the  books  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
in  November,  1809.  He  did  not  reach  the 





HENRY  BROUGHAM. 


or 


Edinburgh  63 

age  of  fourteen  until  the  next  month.  His 
father,  and  his  mother,  to  quote  his  own 
words,  walked  with  him  on  the  dark,  frosty 
autumn  morning  to  set  him  on  his  road  ;  his 
mother  showing  her  "tremulous  affection  " 
at  every  step ;  which  is  a  way  that  mothers 
have!  His  companion,  on  his  journey,  was 
one  "Tom"  Smail,  a  youth  slightly  his 
senior,  who  had  been  at  college  before,  and 
who  was,  therefore,  considered  a  trustworthy 
guide.  "Tom"  Smail  seems  to  have  been  a 
commonplace  creature,  conceited  and  of  no 
account  in  the  college  world,  or  in  the  world 
at  large.  We  hear  no  more  concerning 
"Tom  "  Smail.  His  very  name  sounds  like 
a  joke. 

The  two  Thomases  found  dull,  and  for- 
lorn, and  cheap  lodgings  in  Simon  Square, 
a  dull  and  forlorn  street,  hardly  changed 
during  the  century  that  has  passed.  Carlyle 
said  that  he  learned  very  little  at  college, 
that  in  the  classical  field  he  was  truly  no- 
thing; his  professors  never  noticing  him,  and 
never  being  able  to  distinguish  him  from 


64          Scottish  Universities 

another  Carlyle,  who  was  "an  older  and  a 
bigger  boy,  with  red  hair,  wild  buck-teeth, 
and  scorched  complexion;  and  the  worst 
Latinist"  of  Thomas  Carlyle's  acquaintance. 

The  greater  Carlyle  does  not  seem  to  have 
done  much  better  at  philosophy;  and  the 
only  real  progress  he  made  was  in  mathe- 
matics. He  carried  off  no  prizes.  He  tried 
but  once  for  a  tangible  reward  of  that  sort, 
but,  although  he  was  well  enough  prepared, 
the  noise,  and  the  crowd,  and  the  confusion 
of  the  class-room  so  distracted  him  that  he 
gave  up  the  attempt. 

Sartor  Resartus  is  hardly  autobiographical, 
but  it  contains  a  fair  account  of  what  college 
life  was  to  its  author,  who  declared  that  he 
felt  it  his  duty  to  say  that  out  of  England 
and  Spain  his  own  was  the  worst  of  all 
hitherto  discovered  universities.  But  among 
eleven  hundred  Christian  youths  gathered 
together  in  one  institution  of  learning,  there 
were,  perhaps,  according  to  Carlyle,  eleven 
willing  to  learn;  and  Carlyle  was  one  of  that 
Edinburgh  Eleven.  "By  collision"  with 


Edinburgh  65 

the  other,  and  the  upper,  few,  a  certain 
warmth,  a  certain  polish,  was  communicated 
to  him,  he  thought.  By  accident,  and  by 
happy  instinct,  he  took  less  to  rioting  than 
to  thinking  and  reading.  And  so  the  twig 
was  bent. 

Carlyle  became  Rector  of  the  University 
in  1865,  commemorating  his  election  by  be- 
queathing, in  true  Carlylian  language,  his 
estate  of  Craigenputtock  to  found  bursaries 
in  the  University.  His  reception  by  the 
students  upon  the  occasion  of  the  delivery 
of  his  Inaugural  Address  is  said  to  have  been 
very  striking,  and  very  affectionate.  By 
reason  of  his  age  and  physical  feebleness  he 
was  unable  to  make  his  voice  heard  through- 
out the  hall ;  and  hundreds  of  patient  men, 
who,  perhaps,  under  similar  circumstances, 
were  never  patient  before,  sat  quietly  and 
with  deepest  respect,  unable  to  catch  a  word 
he  said. 

This,  remarks  Sir  Alexander  Grant,  his- 
torian of  the  University,  was  in  strong  con- 
trast with  the  too  frequent  exhibitions  of 


66          Scottish  Universities 

undergraduate  behaviour,  when  graceful  and 
charming  orations  have  been  interrupted  and 
made  inaudible,  and  even  brought  to  an  end 
"by  barbarous  noises"  [the  phrase  is  his 
own],  for  which  there  was  absolutely  no 
reason,  and  no  excuse. 

Thomas  Guthrie,  who,  according  to  his 
own  subsequent  account,  was  always,  as  a 
boy,  fond  of  fun  and  of  fighting,  entered 
the  University  of  Edinburgh  at  the  age  of 
twelve;  and  he  spent  ten  years  of  his  life 
there.  The  first  four  were  devoted  to  the 
Arts,  to  the  linguistic,  to  the  philosophical, 
and  to  the  mathematical  courses ;  the  next 
four  to  the  study  of  divinity,  Church  history, 
Biblical  criticism,  and  Hebrew ;  the  last  two 
years  to  medicine  and  to  science.  His  Uni- 
versity gave  him  his  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity  in  1872. 

John  Stuart  Blackie,  still  well  remembered 
on  the  streets  of  Edinburgh,  w'ent  to  the 
University  after  a  short  period  of  study  at 
Marischal  College,  in  Aberdeen.  He  neg- 
lected his  mathematics,  however,  and  he 


Edinburgh  67 

failed  to  obtain  his  degree;  so  in  1829,  he 
migrated  to  Germany,  to  finish  his  course. 

In  1852,  he  became  Professor  of  Greek  in 
Edinburgh,  a  chair  he  occupied  for  some 
thirty  years.  His  aim,  as  a  lecturer,  was  to 
direct  the  attention  of  his  classes  towards 
the  consideration  of  Greek  life  and  Greek 
thought,  rather  than  to  produce  exact 
scholarship.  He  was  the  author  of,  and  a 
vigorous  leader  in,  that  agitation  for  the 
broadening  and  elevation  of  university  edu- 
cation in  Scotland  which  resulted  in  the 
passing  of  what  is  known  as  the  Universities 
Act. 

Another  one  of  the  few  immortal  names 
upon  which  we  come,  somehow  to  our  sur- 
prise, in  the  famous  roll  of  Edinburgh  men 
is  that  of  Charles  Darwin.  In  his  short 
Autobiography,  presented  by  his  son,  he 
gives  the  following  account  of  his  college 
career : 

' '  As  I  was  doing  no  good  at  school, ' '  he 
wrote,  "  my  father  took  me  away  at  a  rather 
earlier  age  than  usual,  and  sent  me  [Oct.,  1825] 


68          Scottish  Universities 

to  Edinburgh  University  with  my  brother,  where 
I  stayed  for  two  years  or  sessions.  .  .  .  The 
instruction  at  Edinburgh, ' '  he  added,  ' '  was  al- 
together by  lectures,  and  these  were  intolerably 
dull,  with  the  exception  of  those  on  chemistry 
by  Hope.  But,  to  my  mind,  there  are  no  ad- 
vantages, and  many  disadvantages,  in  lectures, 
compared  with  reading.  Dr.  Duncan's  lectures 
on  materia  medica,  at  eight  o'clock  on  a  winter's 
morning,  are  something  fearful  to  remember. 

Dr.  made  his  lectures  on  human  anatomy 

as  dull  as  he  was  himself,  and  the  subject  dis- 
gusted me.  Later, ' '  he  said,  ' '  during  my  second 

year  at  Edinburgh,  I  attended  Dr. 's  lectures 

on  geology  and  zoology,  but  they  were  incredibly 
dull.  The  sole  effect  they  produced  upon  me 
was  the  determination  never,  as  long  as  I  live, 
to  read  a  book  on  geology,  or  in  any  way  to 
study  the  science." 

These  Dr.  Blanks  and  Dr.  Dashes  of  his 
(he  or  Mr.  Francis  Darwin  carefully  omitted 
the  mention  of  names  in  full)  would  have 
been  interested,  perhaps,  to  know  the  im- 
pression they  made  upon  the  young  Darwin 
by  the  manner,  and  the  matter,  of  their  dis- 
courses. And  one  cannot  help  wondering 
how  less  gifted  youths  at  Edinburgh,  during 


. 


JOHN  BROWN. 


Edinburgh  69 

the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
were  moved,  and  inspired,  by  what  they 
heard  in  the  class-rooms  of  the  University. 

Darwin's  father  perceiving  that  the  son 
had  but  little  liking  for  the  profession  of 
medicine  sent  him,  in  1828,  to  Cambridge 
to  prepare  himself  for  the  Church.  The 
world  well  knows  the  result. 

When  the  young  John  Brown,  the  friend 
of  "Rab"  and  of  Rab's  Friends,  entered  the 
Arts  classes  of  the  University,  in  1826,  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  no  doubt  a  dog  of  some 
Scottish  breed  went  with  him,  as  far  as  the 
gates,  and  waited  for  him  until  he  came  out. 
And  with  that  dog,  and  some  other  dogs, 
no  doubt,  he  spent  all  his  "Spare  Hours" 
during  his  college  course. 

In  1828,  he  began  the  study  of  medicine. 
And  he  was  graduated  in  1833. 

A  direct  descendant  of  Robert  Aytoun, 
the  Scottish  poet  who  was  a  St.  Andrews 
man  in  the  sixteenth  century,  was  William 
Edmonstoune  Aytoun,  author  of  the  Lays 
of  the  Cavaliers,  who  was  a  student,  and  a 


70          Scottish  Universities 

professor,  at  Edinburgh.  The  younger 
Aytoun  was,  even  in  his  college  days,  ex- 
ceedingly fluent  in  the  writing  of  verse ;  his 
mother,  who  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  having  imbued  him  with  a 
passion  for  ballad-poetry  when  he  was  yet  a 
boy.  His  first  volume  was  published  when 
he  was  seventeen. 

In  1845,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Chair  of 
Rhetoric  and  Belles-Lettres  in  the  Uni- 
versity, where  he  was  in  his  own  particular 
element,  and  where  he  was  immensely  popu- 
lar, raising  the  number  of  students  in  that 
branch  of  study  from  thirty  to  nearly  nine- 
teen hundred,  in  the  course  of  some  eighteen 
years.  He  edited  Blackwood ;  and  he  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  John  Wilson — "Christo- 
pher North." 

The  audience  which  listened  to  Dr. 
Chalmers,  during  his  Professorship  of  Di- 
vinity, was  altogether  unique  within  the 
walls  of  a  university;  embracing  as  it  did 
not  only  his  own  regular  students,  but  dis- 
tinguished members  of  the  various  profes- 


Edinburgh  71 

sions,  and  many  of  the  most  intelligent 
citizens  of  Edinburgh.  He  stood  upon 
familiar  ground,  that  of  natural  theology 
and  the  evidences  of  Christianity;  the  im- 
pression he  made  upon  his  hearers  was 
great ;  and  great  was  his  influence  for  good. 

He  had  studied  mathematics,  chemistry, 
and  natural  philosophy  in  Edinburgh,  after 
he  was  graduated  from  St.  Andrews. 

The  most  distinguished  of  the  pupils  of 
Dr.  Chalmers,  and  the  man  who,  perhaps, 
most  profited  by  his  teachings  was  Norman 
Macleod.  He  studied  divinity  in  Edinburgh, 
after  he  left  Glasgow  where  he  was  distin- 
guished only  for  his  progress  in  logic.  And 
he  always  held  Dr.  Chalmers  in  the  greatest 
gratitude  and  affection.  The ' '  Good  Words' ' 
of  the  Master,  passed  down  to  posterity 
through  the  student,  became  household 
words  in  Scotland. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson  was  delicate  as  a 
child,  and  consequently  backward  in  the 
forming  of  letters.  He  could  not  read  until 
he  was  eight;  but  when  he  was  six  he 


72          Scottish  Universities 

dictated,  to  his  mother,  a  History  of  Moses 
which  he  illustrated  with  his  own  hand. 
This  is  his  earliest  piece  of  literary  work, 
and  it  is  said  to  be  still  extant. 

At  school,  however,  he  was  bright  and 
alert,  although  desultory  in  his  studies.  He 
entered  the  University  of  Edinburgh  in  No- 
vember, 1867,  when  he  was  seventeen,  and 
he  attended  his  classes  as  regularly  as  his 
disposition,  and  indisposition,  would  permit. 
According  to  his  own  statement  he  was  in- 
corrigibly idle  at  college,  and  one  particular 
professor,  at  the  end  of  a  session,  declared 
to  him  that  he  had  no  recollection  of  ever 
having  seen  his  [Stevenson's]  face  before; 
which  Stevenson  promptly  confessed  was 
not  unlikely. 

His  activity  of  mind  was  exhibited  chiefly 
outside  the  College  precincts.  In  the  streets 
and  wynds  of  the  famous  town,  he  studied 
men,  of  all  sorts  and  conditions;  and  in  his 
own  room,  in  his  father's  house,  he  read 
eagerly  and  omnivorously,  poetry,  fiction, 
essays,  old  and  new ;  devoting  himself,  with 


Edinburgh  73 

all  the  mental  enthusiasm  of  which  he  was 
possessed,  to  the  study  of  Scottish  history. 

In  1871,  he  gave  up  the  idea  of  following 
in  the  paternal  footsteps,  as  a  civil  engineer; 
and  he  attended  the  law  classes  at  the  Uni- 
versity for  several,  irregular  sessions.  He 
was  called  to  the  bar  in  1875,  but  he  never 
practised. 

During  all  this  period  of  school  and  col- 
lege life,  he  was  trying  his  'prentice  hand 
upon  literary  composition,  in  prose  and  in 
verse,  publishing  a  few,  now  rare,  pamphlets, 
highly  prized  by  the  collectors  of  "Steven- 
soniana,"  but  keeping  the  greater,  if  not  the 
better,  part  of  his  work  to  himself. 

In  1873,  he  wrote  to  one  of  his  intimates : — 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  what  you  say  about  the 
exam.  Until  quite  lately  I  had  treated  that 
pretty  cavalierly;  for  I  can  say,  honestly,  that  I 
do  not  mind  being  plucked.  I  shall  just  have  to 
go  up  again.  .  .  .  /  I  don't,  of  course,  want 
to  be  plucked.  But  s$  far  as  my  style  of  know- 
ledge suits  them,  I  cannot  make  much  betterment 
on  it,  in  a  month.  If  they  wish  scholarship 
more  exact,  I  must  take  a  new  lease  altogether." 


I    t 


74          Scottish  Universities 

And  he  took  a  new  lease  altogether. 

In  the  words  of  another,  and  an  earlier 
Scottish  poet,  not  unfamiliar  to  Stevenson, 
for  this  new  lease  "may  the  Lord  be 
thankit." 


Glasg 


ow 


75 


CHARLES  DARWIN. 


Glasgow 

IN  the  month  of  June,  and  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  one,  while  these  words  were  being 
written,  in  Glasgow,  the  University  of  Glas- 
gow was  celebrating  its  four  hundred  and 
fiftieth  birthday;  what  it  called  its  "Ninth 
Jubilee."  Why  "ninth"  and  why  "jubilee" 
are  not  very  clear.  There  is  no  record  of 
its  having  celebrated  its  "first,"  or  its 
"second,  jubilee,"  or  any  other  numerical 
"jubilee  "  whatever.  And  even  the  Earl  of 
Rosebery,  the  Lord  Rector  of  the  Institu- 
tion at  that  time,  was  not  very  sure  concern- 
ing the  meaning  of  "jubilee,"  according  to 
his  own  published  confession.  He  acknow- 
ledged, in  a  volume  called  The  Year  of  the 
Jubilee^  that  "the  wholly  inadequate  figure" 
(the  words  are  his  own) — "that  the  wholly 

77 


78          Scottish  Universities 

inadequate  figure  of  twenty-five  had  been 
adopted  as  constituting  a  jubilee,"  and  then 
he  proceeded  to  preside  at  a  "jubilee  "  con- 
stituted of  what  would  seem  to  be  the 
equally  inadequate  figure  of  fifty;  without 
giving  any  reason  for  the  application  of  the 
term  to  a  period  of  either  a  quarter  or  a 
half  of  a  century ;  his  only  expressed  excuse 
for  the  latter  being  the  historical  fact  that 
two  of  his  own  sovereigns  had  celebrated 
what  were  termed  "jubilees,"  at  the  con- 
clusion of  fifty  years  of  their  own  respective 
reigns. 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  defined  "jubilee  "  as 
"a  publick  festivity;  a  period  of  rejoicing;  a 
season  of  joy,"  without  regard  to  the  passing 
of  time ;  and  he  cited  Milton  as  his  authority. 
And  Shakspere  used  not  the  word  at  all. 
But  in  The  Third  Book  of  Moses,  called 
Leviticus,  we  read  how  the  Lord  spake  unto 
Moses  on  Mount  Sinai,  saying: — "A  jubilee 
shall  that  fiftieth  year  be  to  you  ;"  the  words 
being  thus  rendered  into  English  in  the  reign 
of  James  First  of  England  and  Sixth  of  Scot- 


Glasgow  79 

land.  A  couple  of  centuries  earlier,  one 
Geoffrey  Chaucer,  in  The  Summoner's  Tale, 
told  how  two  friends  of  fifty  years'  standing 
"made  their  Jubilee" ;  and  so  there  is  some 
little  excuse  for  the  word  "jubilee"  in  this 
connection.  But,  still,  in  the  absence  of  all 
previous  "jubilees,"  why  "ninth"? 

At  all  events,  in  1451,  Pope  Nicholas 
Fifth,  the  founder  of  the  Vatican  Library, 
established  a  university  in  Glasgow  which 
was  modelled  upon  the  University  of  Bo- 
logna; and,  in  1901,  that  Scottish  University 
had  a  "jubilee"  ;  whereat  there  was  a  most 
liberal  feast  of  reason;  and  whereat  soul 
flowed  like  water,  in  prose  and  in  verse,  in 
languages  dead,  and  in  languages  quick. 

Glasgow  was  a  small  place  when  the  Pope 
of  Rome  set  up  his  school  there,  in  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  it  was 
of  but  little  importance  in  the  eyes  of  Scot- 
land, and  in  the  eyes  of  the  then  known 
world.  Principal  Story,  in  this  same  "Jubi- 
lee Book,"  quotes  John  Mair  as  saying,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  that 


8o         Scottish  Universities 

Glasgow  was  ' '  the  seat  of  an  archbishop  and 
of  a  university,  poorly  endowed,  and  not 
rich  in  scholars"  :  although  he  quotes  Bishop 
Leslie,  a  little  more  than  a  half  century  later, 
as  declaring  Glasgow  to  have  been  "a  noble 
town,  the  most  renowned  market  in  all  the 
West;  honourable  and  celebrated;  where, 
before  the  Heresy  there  was  an  Academy  not 
obscure  nor  infrequent,  nor  of  a  small  num- 
ber, in  respect  both  of  Philosophy,  and 
Grammar,  and  Politick  Study." 

The  earliest  sessions  of  the  Institution 
were  held  in  an  old  building  in  Rotten  Row, 
long  since  wiped  out  of  existence,  with  the 
fishermen's  huts  and  poor  hovels  which, 
with  the  Cathedral,  made  up  all  that  there 
was  of  Glasgow  in  those  days.  The  original 
College  possessed  a  beautiful  charter,  but 
not  much  of  anything  else.  The  Pope  was 
good  enough  to  create  it,  but  he  forgot,  or 
neglected,  to  provide  for  its  support.  It 
had  no  wealthy  alumni  to  furnish  it  with 
dormitories  and  gymnasiums,  until  Lord 
Hamilton,  who  may  have  been  a  graduate, 


Glasgow  8 1 

left  it  several  acres  of  land  and  a  tenement, 
on  what  was  afterwards  to  become  the  High 
Street. 

As  an  expression  of  their  gratitude  for 
this  gift,  students  and  Faculty  prayed,  twice 
a  day,  and  out  loud,  for  the  repose  of  the 
souls  of  the  donor,  and  the  Lady  Euphemia 
his  spouse,  both  deceased.  And  they  kept 
up  the  practice,  no  doubt,  until  the  outbreak 
of  the  Reformation;  when  the  Reformers 
turned  all  their  serious  attention  to  the  sav- 
ing of  the  souls  of  the  living ! 

These  old  College  buildings  stood  on  the 
site  of  what  is  now  called  the  College  Station 
of  the  North  British  Railway,  on  the  High 
Street.  And  the  Goods  Station,  or  what 
the  Americans  would  style  the  "Freight 
Depot"  of  the  Glasgow  and  South-Western 
Railway  occupies  the  site  of  the  College 
Church,  and  Churchyard. 

But,  nothing  of  College,  of  College  Church, 
or  of  College  Churchyard  now  remains,  ex- 
cept the  gate  of  the  old  building  carried  to, 
and  rebuilt  in,  the  new. 

6 


82         Scottish  Universities 

The  present  University  structures,  on 
Gilmore  Hill,  a  long  walk  distant  from  the 
old,  were  occupied,  for  the  first  time,  during 
the  session  of  1870-71.  They  are  described 
as  being  "of  the  early  English  pointed  style, 
with  an  infusion  of  the  Scoto-French  mo- 
nastic and  secular  styles  of  a  later  period." 
This  may  be  lucid  enough  to  architects,  and 
to  students  of  architecture,  but  it  is  not  apt 
to  mean  much  to  ordinary  secular  minds  of 
the  present  period. 

During  the  seventeenth  century,  whether 
under  Pope  or  under  Presbytery,  as  strict  a 
watch  as  was  possible  was  kept  over  the  stu- 
dents, for  their  moral  good.  Certain  cham- 
bers within  the  College  were  allotted  to  as 
many  undergraduates  as  the  rooms  could 
hold.  In  each  apartment  was  accommoda- 
tion for  four  youths,  every  lad  with  a  desk, 
two  to  a  bed,  with  a  table  in  common.  For 
all  this  the  occupant  was  charged,  from  half 
a  crown  to  eight  shillings,  according  to  ad- 
vantage, or  disadvantage,  of  situation.  A 
censor  visited  the  rooms  every  night,  at  nine 


Glasgow  83 

of  the  clock,  to  see  that  all  was  right ;  that 
there  were  no  cards  or  dice,  or  frivolous  and 
profane  literature,  in  use ;  and  to  inquire  if 
the  occupants  had  been  "careful  in  secret 
prayer."  And  then  the  tallow  candle  was 
blown  out,  and  the  day,  with  its  work,  was 
over.  Every  morning,  the  same  censor,  at 
five  of  the  clock,  awakened  the  youths,  and 
saw  that  all  were  soberly  behaving.  At  six 
of  the  clock  were  praise  and  prayer,  and 
reading  of  the  Scripture,  in  the  common- 
room,  of  course  long  before  the  rising  of  the 
sun  in  the  long,  long  winter  months  of  Scot- 
land. After  "chapel,"  the  undergraduates 
on  empty  stomachs  listened  to  lectures, 
always  in  Latin.  At  nine,  they  breakfasted 
in  hall,  on  a  soup  of  oat-loaf  "good  and 
sufficient,"  three  portions  to  the  pound, 
with  bread  and  drink  (no  doubt,  this  last  was 
not  of  water).  On  three  mornings  of  the 
week,  they  had,  in  addition,  an  egg  apiece. 
They  dined  at  noon.  On  "flesh-days,"  Sun- 
days, Mondays,  Tuesdays,  and  Thursdays, 
they  were  regaled  with  a  fragment  of  oaten 


84         Scottish  Universities 

loaf,  and  with  as  much  of  a  lump  of  beef, 
contained  in  a  general  wooden  platter,  as 
they  could  cut,  and  capture,  with  their  own 
clasp  knives.  On  fish-days,  their  dinners 
consisted  of  two  eggs  and  a  herring.  The 
universal  supper,  on  all  days,  was  bread  and 
milk.  There  is  no  record  of  any  of  them 
being  overfed,  to  any  serious  extent. 

The  students  in  those  times  were  per- 
mitted to  leave  the  College  precincts  when 
the  classes  were  over;  but  on  no  condition 
were  they  to  appear  in  the  streets  with 
dagger  or  with  sword.  To  the  Town,  and 
in  the  town,  they  were  allowed  to  express 
themselves  in  the  local  vernacular.  But  in- 
side the  gates,  even  at  play,  they  were  se- 
verely fined  if  they  spoke  anything  but 
Latin.  They  were  not  permitted  to  have 
servants,  or  to  introduce  friends  or  relatives, 
who  did  not  understand  the  scholastic  Latin. 
And  one  of  the  earliest  regulations  of  the 
College  forbade  the  students  swimming; 
although  exactly  why  this  last  rule  was  en- 
forced is  not  explained. 


Glasgow  85 

Latin,  it  may  be  added,  is  a  language  as 
defunct  generally  within  the  precincts  of  the 
University  of  Glasgow  now,  as  it  is  any- 
where else.  It  is  only  resurrected  as  a  mat- 
ter of  business ;  and  it  is  still  embalmed  in 
examination  papers,  in  set  orations,  and  in 
diplomas. 

Alexander  Carlyle,  styled  "Jupiter"  Car- 
lyle,  by  his  friends  and  admirers,  who  were 
many,  occupied  one  of  these  College  cham- 
bers in  1743-4;  and  he  has  given  some 
account  of  his  surroundings. 

A  College  servant  made  his  bed,  and 
looked  after  his  fire.  He  seems  to  have 
hired  his  own  furniture;  and  he  mentions 
a  maid  as  appearing  once  a  fortnight  with 
clean  linen.  His  dinner,  consisting  of  roast- 
beef,  potatoes,  and  small-beer,  cost  him  four- 
pence. 

As  the  number  of  students  increased,  and 
as  the  demand  for  additional  class-rooms 
became  greater,  the  letting  of  chambers  to 
students  was  gradually  discontinued ;  never 
to  be  revived. 


86         Scottish  Universities 

The  undergraduates  seem,  at  one  time,  to 
have  been  fond  not  only  of  play-houses,  but 
of  playing  themselves;  and  in  1721,  it  was 
declared  that,  in  future,  no  student  should 
appear  in  public,  on  the  stage,  without  pre- 
vious sanction  of  the  Faculty,  and  on  pain  of 
expulsion.  Such  performances  were  looked 
upon  as  tending  to  divert  the  youths  from 
more  serious  and  more  useful  studies,  and 
to  lead  them  into  ways  of  spending  their 
time,  and  their  money,  which  were  neither 
profitable  to  themselves  nor  conducive  to 
their  good  order. 

The  classes  in  the  beginning  were  opened 
with  prayer,  by  the  students  each  in  turn, 
not  by  the  Faculty ;  and  always  in  Latin. 
But  in  later  years,  when  poor  prayers  and 
bad  Latin  made  the  service  ridiculous,  only 
those  were  asked  who  had  the  gift,  as  well 
as  the  wish,  to  invoke  the  blessing. 

Mr.  James  Coutts,  in  his  Short  Account  of 
the  University  of  Glasgow,  says  that  some  of 
the  early  disturbances,  among  the  students, 
as  compared  with  modern  breaches  of  disci- 


Glasgow  87 

pline  make  the  latter  seem  "tame  and  do- 
mestic,"—  the  words  in  quotation  marks 
being  his  own.  He  cites,  as  an  example,  one 
instance  in  which  two  youths,  of  high  social 
degree,  did  wait  for  one  of  their  professors, 
and  did  prepare  to  attack  him,  on  his  way 
from  the  College  through  the  Churchyard. 
They  were  armed  with  batons  and  swords ; 
and  the  professor  fled.  But  Mr.  Cunning- 
ham, the  chief  offender,  was  captured ;  and, 
as  a  punishment,  and  as  a  warning,  he  was 
ordered  to  appear,  bare-footed  and  bare- 
headed, at  the  scene  of  the  assault,  and 
there  to  crave  pardon  for  his  offence.  He 
disregarded  the  order;  his  family  took  the 
matter  up,  as  a  family  affair ;  and,  after  much 
discussion,  which  threatened  to  become 
very  serious,  the  delinquent,  bare-headed 
and  without  his  shoes,  but  otherwise  mag- 
nificently attired,  did  finally  present  himself, 
surrounded  by  four  or  five  hundred  of  his 
family  and  friends,  and  did,  then  and  there, 
acknowledge  that  he  had  been  a  little  hasty ! 
Early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  there 


88         Scottish  Universities 

was  a  very  grand  row  between  Town  and 
Gown.  Town  resented  some  playful  dis- 
turbances of  Gown,  and  locked  up  a  few  of 
the  playful  disturbers.  Whereupon  other 
Gownsmen  forcibly  seized  the  keys  of  the 
prison,  and  assaulted,  violently,  the  prison- 
keeper.  Certain  Townsmen  retaliated  by 
shooting  and  otherwise  puncturing  the 
students,  with  equal  violence,  and  within 
the  sacred  precincts  of  the  College  itself. 
This  last  was  a  high  violation  of  University 
privileges,  never  before  known  to  be  equalled, 
within  the  memory  of  man.  Town  author- 
ities and  Gown  authorities  became  deeply 
interested ;  and  many  meetings  between  Col- 
lege Masters  and  Civic  Magistrates  were  held 
before  a  settlement  was  reached.  The  ring- 
leading  students  were  expelled,  and  other- 
wise punished  by  the  Masters.  And  the 
Magistrates  issued  a  proclamation  forbid- 
ding the  citizens  to  enter  the  University 
gates  with  warlike  intent,  either  armed  or 
unarmed.  Town  in  this  instance  seems  to 
have  prevailed  over  Gown. 


JOHN  GIBSON  LOCKHART. 


Glasgow  89 

Mr.  Andrew  Lang  in  his  Life  of  John 
Gibson  Lockhart,  says  that 

"the  College  [Glasgow]  in  Lockhart 's  time 
[1805  to  1808]  as  in  my  own,  was  the  black  old 
quadrangle,  guarded  by  an  effigy  of  some 
heraldic  animal,  probably  the  Scottish  lion,  into 
whose  open  mouth  it  was  thought  unbecoming 
to  insert  a  bun.  Blackness,  dirt,  smoke,  a  selec- 
tion of  the  countless  smells  of  Glasgow;  small, 
airless,  crowded  rooms,  thronged  by  youths  at 
whom  Lockhart  could  not  have  scoffed  for  ex- 
aggerated elegance  in  dress;  these  things  made 
up  a  picture  of  the  old  College  of  Glasgow. 
Now"  [1896],  he  adds,  "there  is  a  new  and 
magnificent  building,  in  a  part  of  the  town  which 
enjoys,  for  Glasgow,  a  respectable  atmosphere." 

It  will  be  perceived  from  this,  that  there 
are  men  still  living,  and  still  mentally  and 
physically  active,  who  remember  the  Uni- 
versity in  all  its  smoke  and  blackness,  and 
who  do  not  regret  the  small  airless  rooms 
and  the  many  airy  smells  of  the  old  order 
of  things. 

There   are,   on   the   other   hand,    certain 
romantic  persons,  seeing  and  scenting  from 


QO         Scottish  Universities 

the  outside  only,  who  wish  that  some  of  the 
smoke  from  the  earlier,  more  interesting, 
chimneys  might  have  been  left  to  curl  grace- 
fully over  the  High  Street,  and  over  the 
sites  of  the  railway  termini ;  and  that  there 
might  still  be  a  little  of  the  ancient  College 
blackness  visible  in  the  atmosphere  now 
kept  respectable  by  commerce  "in  the  seat 
of  the  most  renowned  market  of  the  west  of 
Scotland. ' ' 

The  student  life  of  the  present,  in  the 
University  of  Glasgow,  is  very  similar  to 
that  of  Edinburgh,  elsewhere  more  minutely 
described.  Like  Edinburgh,  and  the  other 
Scottish  universities,  Glasgow  is  what  is 
called  "a  non-residential  college."  The 
undergraduates  (<5utside  the  buildings)  are 
their  own  masters,  absolutely.  They  wear 
cap  and  gown;  the  traditional  cap,  and  a 
scarlet  gown;  but  these  are  not  always 
compulsory,  even  in  class-rooms  or  halls; 
and  neither  cap,  nor  gown,  on  ordinary 
occasions,  is  often  seen  in  the  streets  of  the 
town. 


INTERIOR  COURT,  OLD  COLLEGE,  GLASGOW. 


Glasgow  91 

There  are  two  annual  sessions.  The  first 
from  about  the  i$th  of  October  until  about 
the  2Oth  of  April.  The  second  from  the 
end  of  April  until  about  the  end  of  June. 
The  same  proportion  of  students  as  in 
Edinburgh  seek,  and  obtain,  their  degrees. 

Those  who  do  elect  to  go  out  into  the 
world  as  Bachelors,  or  as  Masters,  of  Arts, 
are  literally  capped  and  hooded.  The  hood 
is  personal,  bought,  or  borrowed,  for  the 
occasion.  The  cap  is  general;  and  it  has 
lasted  for  generations  of  graduates.  It  is 
clapped  upon  the  head  of  each  applicant,  in 
turn,  as  he,  and  not  infrequently  as  she, 
kneels  reverently  in  front  of  the  Chancellor's 
chair  in  Bute  Hall. 

In  1715,  a  printing-press  was  established 
within  the  University  precincts,  and  it 
issued,  although  for  a  short  time  only,  a 
penny  newspaper,  published  three  times  a 
week. 

To-day  there  is  but  one  College  periodical, 
the  Glasgow  University  Journal,  and  that  is 
very  young  in  years. 


92         Scottish  Universities 

There  is  now,  during  term-times,  a  Sun- 
day afternoon  service  in  Bute  Hall;  some 
distinguished  stranger  usually  preaching, 
from  a  three-decked  pulpit,  on  wheels, 
which  is  rolled  into  the  room  for  the  occa- 
sion. A  particularly  selected  undergraduate 
reads  the  lesson ;  and  the  Principal,  or 
President,  generally  makes  the  prayer.  The 
service  is  open  to  any  person  who  cares  to 
attend,  be  he  citizen  or  student ;  but  there 
is  no  compulsion  exercised  towards  either 
Gown  or  Town. 

As  in  Edinburgh  there  is  a  Students' 
Union,  but  it  is  as  young  in  years  as  is  the 
University  Journal;  there  is  a  Students' 
Representative  Council;  and  there  are 
students'  societies  of  all  ages,  and  of  all 
varieties.  But  the  student  himself,  as  in 
Edinburgh,  goes  and  comes  at  his  own 
sweet,  untrammelled  will.  He  makes  but 
few  friends;  he  carries  away  with  him  a 
good  deal  of  useful  and  of  ornamental 
knowledge.  But  he  has  no  class  spirit  to 
carry  away  with  him,  or  to  leave  behind  him. 


Glasgow  93 

The  average  list  of  students  is  about  two 
thousand.  There  are  a  large  number  of 
professorial  chairs,  and  of  lectureships 
among  the  Faculties  of  Arts,  Science,  Law, 
Medicine,  and  Theology. 

Each  professor  has  his  own  class-room. 
There  are  ample  provisions  for  laboratories, 
and  the  like,  for  the  development  of  the 
mind ;  and  there  is  a  gymnasium  and  a  re- 
creation ground,  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
muscles. 

The  Library  and  the  Hunterian  Museum 
occupy  a  good  portion  of  the  New  Building; 
and  are  richly  endowed ;  filling  admirably  all 
the  requirements  of  such,  and  similar,  in- 
stitutions. 

The  modern  Bute  Hall,  named  after  a 
munificent  donor,  a  late  Marquis  of  Bute,  is 
the  scene  of  all  graduation  ceremonies  and 
other  functions.  It  cost  a  very  handsome 
sum;  and  is  in  every  way  worthy  of  the 
cause  for  which  it  was  intended,  and  to 
which  it  is  put. 

The   most  ancient    of   the   relics   of   the 


94         Scottish  Universities 

University,  with  the  exception  of  some  of 
the  manuscripts  in  the  Library,  and  unques- 
tionably the  most  revered  and  prized,  is  the 
mace.  It  dates  back  to  the  days  of  David 
Cadyow,  the  earliest  Rector,  who,  on  the 
occasion  of  his  re-election  to  office,  in  1460, 
donated  twenty  nobles  for  its  manufacture 
and  purchase.  This  sum,  however,  was  not 
sufficient ;  and  a  few  years  later,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  institution  subscribed,  according 
to  their  means,  for  its  proper  completion. 
It  is  a  venerable  piece  of  furniture,  always 
playing  an  important  part  in  University 
functions,  and  always  handled  with  rever- 
ence and  with  affection.  The  shaft  is  of 
silver ;  but  other  precious  metals  have  been 
employed  in  its  construction.  Upon  its 
various  parts  are  engraved  Latin  inscrip- 
tions, the  rampant  lion  of  Scotland,  and  the 
arms  of  certain  noble  Scottish  families. 

The  Faculty  of  Glasgow  describing  this 
symbol  once,  with  much  pride,  to  a  trans- 
atlantic visitor,  were  greatly  impressed  upon 
hearing  that  the  only  mace  known  to  the 


Glasgow  95 

American  colleges  was  a  base-ball  bat  or  a 
tennis-racket ! 

The  architect  of  the  New  Building  was 
Sir  Gilbert  Scott.  The  name  of  the  archi- 
tect of  the  Old  Building  is  now  forgotten ; 
but  the  records  show  how  many  joiners,  and 
slaters,  and  sawyers,  and  quarriers,  and 
carters,  and  wrights,  and  masons,  and  bar- 
rowmen  were  employed.  And  there  is  evi- 
dence that,  at  the  expense  of  the  University, 
these  workmen  were  treated  to  drink  now 
and  then  ;  and  that,  sometimes,  the  regents, 
who  were  the  professors,  partook  of  glasses 
of  wine  in  their  society,  and  also  at  the 
University's  expense. 

The  archway  and  an  adjoining  portion  of 
the  Old  College  were  preserved  as  has  been 
shown.  And  by  private  subscription,  they 
have  been  put  together  again,  at  the  north- 
eastern gateway  of  the  present  edifice,  form- 
ing not  the  least  interesting  portions  of  the 
establishment  as  it  now  stands. 

In  1892,  Glasgow,  with  the  rest  of  the 
Scottish  universities,  under  what  is  called 


96         Scottish  Universities 

"the  Universities  Act  of  1889,"  first  per- 
mitted women  to  study  for  degrees,  but 
in  separate  classes.  And  Queen  Margaret 
College,  established  in  1883,  for  the  higher 
education  of  women,  with  its  staff  of  teach- 
ers, and  students,  was  made  a  part,  and 
portion,  of  the  University  proper.  It  is 
slowly,  but  surely,  growing  in  numbers. 
But  it  is  hardly  old  enough  yet,  important 
as  it  is,  and  the  largest  in  Scotland,  to  have 
literary  landmarks  of  its  own.  Its  buildings 
and  grounds  are  of  considerable  extent ;  and 
it  forms,  and  justly  so,  an  important  part  of 
the  University  of  Glasgow  to-day. 

One  of  the  most  devoted  of  the  earlier 
sons  of  Glasgow  University,  which  he  en- 
tered in  1601,  was  Zachary  Boyd,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  for  some  unknown 
reason,  he  left  Glasgow  in  1603  to  matricu- 
late at  St.  Andrews,  where  he  took  his  de- 
gree of  M.A.,  four  years  later.  In  his 
maturity,  he  was,  successively,  Dean  of  the 
Faculty,  Rector,  and  Vice-Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Glasgow ;  and  he  bequeathed 


OLD  COLLEGE  GATEWAY,  GLASGOW. 


Glasgow  97 

to  it  a  very  voluminous  collection  of  his  man- 
uscripts, some  of  which  have  been  printed, 
from  time  to  time,  as  curiosities  of  literature. 
In  The  Last  Battcll  of  the  Soule  in  Death,  he 
thus  apostrophises  water  in  general : 

"  O,  Cursed  Waters;  O,  Waters  of  Marah, 
full  bitter  are  yee  to  me;  O,  Element  which  of 
all  others  shall  be  most  detestable  to  my  Soule. 
I  shall  never  wash  mine  hands  with  thee  but  I 
shall  remember  what  thou  hast  done  to  my  best 
beloved  Sonne,  the  darling  of  my  Soule.  I  shall 
forever  be  a  friend  to  the  fire,  which  is  thy  great- 
est foe.  Away  Rivers;  Away  Seas;  .  .  . 
O  Seas  of  Sorrows;  O  Fearfull  Floodes;  O, 
Trembling  Tempest;  O,  Wilful  Waves;  O, 
Swelling  Surges;  O,  Wicked  Waters;  O,  Dole- 
ful Deepes;  O,  Feartest  Pooles;  O,  Botchful 
Butcher  Boates;"  etc. 

And  he  winds  up  by  expressing  his  sincere 
regret  that  he  cannot  refrain  from  tears, 
because  tears  are  salt  and  wet,  as  certain 
waters  are.  All  this  was  simply  because  an 
unfortunate  grandson  of  James  Fourth  was 
drowned,  once,  while  crossing  the  water  to 
Amsterdam  from  Leith. 


98         Scottish  Universities 

Some  of  Boyd's  expressions  in  verse  are 
equally  remarkable.  In  The  Flowers  of 
Zion,  a  collection  of  "Poems  on  Selected 
Subjects  in  Scripture  History,  rendered  in 
Dramatic  Form,"  he  gives  one  soliloquy  of 
Jonah,  during  the  prophet's  traditional  voy- 
age in  the  cabin  of  the  whale,  which  solilo- 
quy is  certainly  unique.  There  is  space 
for  but  little  more  than  fragments  of  it 
here: 

"  What  house  is  this  [he  cries],  where  's  neither 

coal  nor  candle? 

Where  I  nothing  but  guts  of  fishes  handle? 
I  and  my  table  are  both  here  within 
Where  day  ne'er  dawned,  where  sunne   did 

never  shine, 

'  The  like  of  this  on  earth  man  never  saw. 
A  living  man  within  a  monster's  maw 


He  [Noah]  in  his  Ark  might  goe,  and  also 

come; 

But  I  sit  still  in  such  a  straightened  roome 
As  is  most  uncouth,  head  and  feet  together, 
Among    such    grease   as   would    a   thousand 

smother. ' ' 


Glasgow  99 

Robert  Woodrow,  the  laborious  author  of 
The  History  of  the  Sufferings  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  like  Dugald  Stewart,  was  em- 
phatically a  university  man.  The  son  of  the 
Professor  of  Divinity  in  Glasgow  College, 
he  was  born  within  the  College  precincts, 
was  a  graduate  of  the  institution;  and  for 
some  years  he  was  its  librarian.  His  great 
and  serious  work  is  now  one  of  the  half- 
forgotten  books  of  the  world ;  but  his  name 
and  his  blood  are  perpetuated  on  the  west- 
ern side  of  the  Atlantic,  especially  in  the 
University  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  fun,  and  not  a 
little  of  frolic,  mixed  with  the  serious  studies 
of  Tobias  Smollett  at  Glasgow.  He  was 
found  of  practical  joking,  and  he  was  famous 
for  the  satirical  and  pungent  nature  of  his 
comments  upon  persons  and  things.  One 
of  his  biographers  gives  a  striking  example 
of  the  force  of  his  repartee.  He  partici- 
pated in  a  certain  mild  Town  and  Gown 
row,  when  and  where  the  missiles  were 
snowballs.  Among  his  civic  opponents  was 


ioo        Scottish  Universities 

a  surgeon's  apprentice,  who,  upon  being  re- 
buked by  his  master,  an  eye-witness  of  the 
encounter,  explained  that  he  (the  appren- 
tice) did  not  begin  it;  that  he  was  first 
assaulted  without  cause ;  and  that  he,  natur- 
ally, had  to  defend  himself.  The  surgeon 
seemed  to  consider  the  statement  improb- 
able, remarking  that  nobody  ever  threw 
snowballs  at  him !  Upon  this  hint  did 
Smollett  immediately  and  emphatically 
speak,  hitting  the  surgeon  in  the  ear  with 
an  unusually  large  and  hard  snowball,  fired 
with  unusual  accuracy  of  aim.  Smollett's 
biographer  in  question  regarded  this  as  a 
wonderful  example  of  his  subject's  power  in 
the  use  of  the  retort  courteous,  the  quip 
modest,  the  reply  churlish,  the  reproof 
valiant,  and  the  counter-check  quarrelsome. 
By  the  chance  of  his  intimacy  with  some 
of  the  medical  students  in  the  College, 
Smollett  was  led  to  turn  his  attention  to 
what  was  called  the  "Profession  of  Physic 
and  Anatomy."  But,  for  all  that,  he  did 
not  neglect  the  study  of  literature;  and, 


JAMES  WATT. 


Glasgow  ioi 

during  his  undergraduate  days,  he  wrote  a 
tragedy  upon  the  death  of  James  First  of 
Scotland  which  composition  he  termed  The 
Regicide.  It  was  better  suited  to  the  closet 
than  to  the  stage ;  but  it  is  said  to  display 
considerable  ability.  It  was  not  published 
until  1/49,  some  ten  years  later.  He  left 
college  when  he  was  eighteen,  one  of  his 
professors  speaking  of  him,  affectionately, 
as  "a  bubbly-nosed  callant;  with  always  a 
stone  in  his  pouch." 

One  of  the  great  distinctions  of  Glasgow 
University  is  the  fact  that  The  Wealth  of 
Nations  was  first  distributed,  and  first  drew 
interest,  in  her  class-rooms,  by  the  medium 
of  the  lectures  of  Adam  Smith,  as  they  were 
delivered  to  her  students;  to  be  banked,  and 
safely  invested,  afterwards,  through  many 
editions  of  bound  volumes. 

Smith  entered  the  College  in  1737,  when 
he  was  hardly  fifteen,  and  we  are  told  that 
his  favourite  pursuits  there  were  natural  and 
moral  philosophy  and  mathematics.  In 
1740,  he  went  to  Balliol  College  at  Oxford. 


102        Scottish  Universities 

In  1748,  he  lectured  on  belles-lettres  and 
rhetoric  at  Edinburgh.  In  1751,  he  went 
back  to  Glasgow  to  accept  the  Chair  of 
Logic ;  and  the  next  year  he  was  made  Pro- 
fessor of  Moral  Philosophy,  a  position  he 
held  until  1763.  And  in  1787,  he  was 
elected  Rector  of  the  University  which  he 
had  attended  so  faithfully  and  so  long.  No 
preferment,  he  declared  in  his  letter  of  ac- 
ceptance, could  have  given  him  so  much 
real  satisfaction.  No  man,  he  added,  could 
owe  greater  obligations  to  a  society  than  he 
did  to  Glasgow.  The  period  of  thirteen 
years  which  he  had  spent  as  a  member  of 
that  institution,  he  remembered  as  by  far  the 
most  useful  and,  therefore  as  by  far  the  hap- 
piest and  most  honourable,  period  of  his  life. 
We  are  told  that,  in  delivering  his  lectures, 
Smith  trusted  almost  entirely  to  extem- 
porary elocution.  His  manner,  although 
not  graceful,  was  plain  and  unaffected ;  and 
he  seemed  to  be  always  interested  in  his 
subject,  while  he  never  failed  to  interest  his 
hearers. 


Glasgow  103 

Not  the  least  valuable  of  Adam  Smith's 
contributions  to  The  Wealth  of  Nations  was 
his  kindness  to  James  Watt,  who  was  not 
permitted  to  follow  his  profession  of  instru- 
ment maker  in  Glasgow,  on  the  ground  that 
he  had  not  served  a  proper  legal  apprentice- 
ship to  the  trade,  that  he  did  not,  as  it  were, 
belong  to  the  Union.  But  the  heads  of  the 
College,  including  Smith,  appointed  him 
"  Mathematical  Instrument  Maker  to  the 
University,"  and  authorised  him  to  establish 
a  workshop  within  its  precincts,  where  he 
remained  for  some  time. 

James  Boswell,  the  famous  biographer  of 
Johnson,  after  his  graduation  at  Edinburgh, 
studied  civil  law,  in  Glasgow,  in  1759;  and 
he  also  attended  there  the  lectures  of  Adam 
Smith  on  rhetoric  and  moral  philosophy, 
although  he  is  always  considered,  and  no 
doubt  he  always  considered  himself,  an 
Edinburgh  man. 

Although  Dugald  Stewart  was  born,  was 
educated,  and  taught  in  the  College  at  Edin- 
burgh, and  was  intimately  associated  with 


104       Scottish  Universities 

that  institution  for  fifty-seven  years,  he 
went  to  Glasgow  at  the  commencement  of 
the  session  of  1771,  to  benefit  by  the  lectures 
of  Dr.  John  Reed,  the  metaphysician  and 
moral  philosopher,  where  he  not  only  at- 
tended diligently  to  the  matter  in  hand,  but 
composed,  during  his  leisure  hours,  his 
famous  Essay  on  Dreaming,  afterwards  pub- 
lished in  the  first  volume  of  The  Philosophy 
of  the  Human  Mind.  He  was  then  eighteen 
years  of  age. 

Francis  Jeffrey  was  at  Glasgow  for  two 
sessions,  entering  at  the  traditional  early 
age.  During  the  first  half-year,  his  classes 
were  the  Greek  and  the  logic;  during  his 
second  term,  he  devoted  himself  particularly 
to  moral  philosophy.  One  of  his  contem- 
poraries says  that  "he  exhibited  nothing 
remarkable,  except  a  degree  of  quickness, 
bordering,  as  some  thought,  on  petulance; 
and  the  whim  of  cherishing  a  premature 
moustache,  very  black  and  covering  the 
whole  of  his  upper  lip,  for  which  he  was 
inordinately  laughed  at,  and  teased,  by  his 


FRANCIS  JEFFREY. 


Glasgow  105 

fellow-students."  Another  man  recollected 
seeing,  at  a  certain  election  for  the  Lord 
Rectorship,  "a  little  black  creature,"  who 
was  haranguing  some  boys  on  the  Green, 
and  urging  them  to  vote  against  Adam 
Smith.  This  was  Jeffrey.  Still  another 
Glasgow  man  remembered  Jeffrey  at  a  de- 
bating society  called  "The  Historical  and 
Critical,"  where  he  distinguished  himself  as 
the  most  acute  and  fluent  of  the  speakers. 
His  favourite  subjects  were  criticism  and 
metaphysics. 

He  was,  or  at  least  he  thought  he  was,  at 
that  time,  a  victim  to  superstitious  fears. 
And,  to  cure  himself,  he  was  accustomed  to 
walk,  alone,  and  at  midnight,  around  the 
Cathedral  and  its  graveyard;  then  a  very 
solitary  spot.  He  was  elected  Lord  Rector 
of  the  University  in  1820. 

Glasgow  is  so  universally  looked  upon, 
and  apostrophised,  as  the  Centre  of  Trade 
and  of  Commerce,  as  the  very  epitome  of 
all  that  is  practical,  in  a  business  way,  that 
it  is  hard  to  think  of  The  Pleasures  of  Hope 


io6       Scottish  Universities 

and  The  Pleasures  of  Memory  as  springing 
from  its  College.  Nevertheless  the  former 
poem  was  begun  while  Thomas  Campbell 
was  an  undergraduate,  and  before  he  was 
twenty.  He  had  posed  as  a  poet  ten  years 
earlier  than  that,  and  those  of  his  produc- 
tions, as  a  child,  which  have  been  preserved, 
are  said  to  "exhibit  all  that  delicate  appre- 
ciation of  the  graceful  flow  and  music  of 
language  for  which  his  poetry  was  afterwards 
distinguished." 

Born  in  Glasgow,  he  entered  the  Univer- 
sity there  in  1791,  when  he  was  fourteen; 
and  he  at  once  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  masters,  by  the  happiness  of  his  transla- 
tions of  Euripides,  put  by  him,  as  class 
exercises,  into  excellent  verse.  In  1793,  his 
Poem  on  Description  won  the  prize  in  the 
logic  class,  although  it  had  been  written 
four  years  previously,  and  before  he  had 
reached  the  age  of  twelve. 

Those  of  us  who  are  interested  at  present 
in  the  formation  of  the  common  mind  in 
universities,  on  each  side  of  the  Atlantic, 


Glasgow  107 

rarely  meet  with  examination-papers  which 
are  rendered  into  verse  that  is  not  exceed- 
ingly blank.  And  when  the  modern  under- 
graduate lisps  in  logic  numbers,  and  receives 
the  highest  commendation  for  so  doing,  the 
modern  professor  will  think  that  the  millen- 
nium has  come ! 

Whether  Campbell's  prize  was  awarded 
on  the  strength  of  his  knowledge  of  logic, 
or  because  of  the  delicate  music  of  the  lan- 
guage in  which  his  knowledge  of  logic  was 
expressed,  the  University  records  do  not 
show. 

During  the  greater  part  of  his  college 
course  he  was  obliged  to  pay  for  his  own 
education  by  giving  lessons  in  Latin  and  in 
Greek,  as  a  private  tutor.  He  had  com- 
pleted five  sessions  at  the  University  before 
he  was  twenty,  when  he  went  to  Edinburgh 
to  find  a  publisher  for  The  Pleasures  of  Hope. 

In  1826,  he  was  elected  Lord  Rector  of 
the  University,  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
students.  The  honour  was  conferred  upon 
him  for  three  successive  terms,  a  compliment 


io8       Scottish  Universities 

rarely  paid  to  any  holder  of  that  high 
academic  office. 

In  his  student  days,  Campbell  lodged  on 
the  High  Street,  on  the  corner  of  College 
Street,  and  opposite  the  Old  College.  But 
the  tenement,  alas,  for  the  pleasure  of  the 
memory  of  it,  no  longer  stands. 

John  Wilson,  better  known  as  "Christo- 
pher North,"  was  at  Glasgow  University 
for  a  few  years,  where  he  studied  Greek 
and  Latin ;  but  he  is  chiefly  associated  with 
Magdalen  College  in  Oxford,  where  his 
education  was  completed,  and  with  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh,  where,  in  1820,  he  was 
appointed  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy. 

Lockhart,  the  son-in-law  and  biographer 
of  Scott,  was  matriculated  at  Glasgow  Uni- 
versity in  1805,  when  he  was  in  his  twelfth 
year,  and  among  the  youngest  of  his  class. 
Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  Lockhart's  biographer, 
gives  the  official  record  of  his  subject's 
career  in  the  institution.  In  1805-6,  he 
attended  the  Humanity  class,  gaining,  dur- 
ing the  next  session,  the  fifth  prize,  "for 


Glasgow  109 

exemplary  diligence  and  regularity";  and 
also  the  second  prize  "for  excellence  at  the 
examination  in  Roman  antiquities."  In 
1807-8,  he  received  a  prize  in  the  Greek 
class  "for  propriety  of  conduct,  diligence, 
and  earnest  ability,  displayed  during  the 
whole  of  the  session."  In  1808-9,  ^e  re~ 
ceived  a  prize  in  the  logic  class,  and  two 
prizes  in  Latin. 

A  friend  of  Lockhart  has  told  of  the  char- 
acter and  appearance  of  the  boy  on  his  first 
entering  college.  He  had  but  lately  lost  a 
brother  and  a  sister,  who  had  died  within  a 
few  days  of  each  other,  and  to  whom  he  was 
devotedly  attached.  He  had  then  barely 
recovered  from  the  misery  caused  by  his 
great  grief,  which  he  had  tried  to  suppress. 
He  was  thin,  and  pale,  untidy,  a  mocker  at 
what  he  considered  dandyism  in  others, 
fond  of  poetry,  averse  to  games,  addicted 
to  satire,  and  given  to  pictorial  caricature 
of  his  professors.  He  was  not  fond  of 
fights  with  the  Town  boys.  His  chief 
amusement  was  to  collect,  and  to  recite, 


no       Scottish  Universities 

ballads.  He  obtained  a  Balliol  Fellowship 
in  1809,  when  he  left  Glasgow  to  complete 
his  university  course  in  Oxford. 

When  Walter  Scott  lay  a-dying  at  Abbots- 
ford,  he  turned  to  Lockhart,  and  said — the 
account  is  Lockhart's  own: — "Lockhart,  I 
have  but  a  few  moments  to  speak  to  you. 
My  dear,  be  a  good  man — be  virtuous — be 
religious — Be  a  good  man !  " 

Lockhart  was  a  good  man.  And  his  col- 
lege records  show  that  he  was  a  good  boy — 
the  stuff  out  of  which  good  men  are  made. 

After  Robert  Pollok  had  passed  through 
a  regular  course  of  literary  and  philosophical 
study  at  Glasgow,  he  entered  the  Divinity 
School,  and  was  licensed  to  preach  in  the 
spring  of  1827.  He  delivered  but  one, 
single,  sermon;  and  he  died  in  the  autumn 
of  the  same  year. 

He  made  several  attempts  at  prose,  and  at 
verse,  during  his  early  college  days ;  and  he 
wrote  his  Course  of  Time, — a  very  unusual 
undergraduate  production, — while  prepar- 
ing for  the  ministry.  It  was  published,  by 


WALTER  SCOTT. 


Glasgow 


in 


Blackwood,  just  before  the  author's  death, 
on  the  strong  recommendation  of  Prof. 
Wilson,  ' '  Christopher  North. ' '  In  one  por- 
tion of  what  the  inscription  upon  his  monu- 
ment calls  his  " Immortal  Poem,"  which  is, 
in  a  measure,  a  fragment  of  autobiography, 
he  tells  how 

' '  He  called  philosophy,  and  with  his  heart 
Reasoned.     He  called  religion,  too,  but  called 
Reluctantly,  and  therefore  was  not  heard." 

How 

"  He  stood  admiring, 
But  stood,   admired,   not  long.     The  harp  he 

seized, 

The  harp  he  loved,  loved  better  than  his  life, 
The  harp  which  uttered  deepest  notes,  and  held 
The  ear  of  thought  a  captive  to  its  song. 
He  searched  and  meditated  much,  and  whiles, 
With  rapturous  hand  in  secret,  touched  the  lyre 
Aiming  at  glorious  strains." 

A  tinge  of  melancholy  pervades  the  song. 
But  he  believed  that  he  was  to 

"Have 
His  name  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Life." 

And  in  its  pages  his  name  still  stands. 


ii2        Scottish  Universities 

In  the  long  list  of  Scottish  literary  worthies 
are  two  Michael  Scotts.  The  earlier,  born 
in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
before  there  were  any  Scottish  universities 
to  go  to,  was  educated,  it  is  supposed,  in 
Oxford ;  the  second,  the  author  of  two  once 
famous  books,  Tom  Cringle  s  Log  and  The 
Cruise  of  the  Midge,  was  born  in  Glasgow 
in  1789,  and  went  for  a  short  time  to  the 
College  of  the  town  of  his  nativity. 

Norman  Macleod  entered  the  University 
of  Glasgow  in  1827;  but  he  was  in  no  way 
particularly  distinguished  there;  and  he 
obtained  no  honours,  except  in  logic.  His 
intimates  were  men  of  the  highest  available 
intellectual  qualities,  usually  his  seniors  in 
years  and  experience;  and  he  devoted  his 
spare  hours  to  the  study  of  poetry  and 
general  literature,  without  neglecting  more 
serious  things.  One  of  his  peculiarities  was 
to  dress  himself  in  sailor  garb,  and  to  imitate 
the  mariner,  as  far  as  possible,  in  his  walk 
and  talk,  although  nobody  now  knows  why. 
His  letters  and  his  journals  rarely  touch 


Glasgow  113 

upon  his  college  life  or  doings;  but  in  his 
later  years  he  was  fond  of  talking  about  his 
curious  experiences  in  Glasgow;  about  the 
strange  characters  he  met  there ;  about  the 
conceits,  peculiarities,  absurdities,  and  en- 
thusiasms of  his  friends  and  acquaintances 
there ;  about  the  occasional  social  gatherings 
and  suppers  they  indulged  in,  where  the 
dissipation  was  of  the  mildest  form ;  and 
about  the  long,  speculative  talks  they  had, 
lasting  often  far  into  the  night.  Later  he 
studied  his  well-applied  divinity  under  Dr. 
Chalmers  in  Edinburgh. 

The  quantity  or  the  quality  of  the  plays 
written  by  Tom  Taylor  during  his  under- 
graduate days,  at  Glasgow,  is  very  uncer- 
tain. He  began  his  dramatic  composition 
almost  before  he  could  form  his  letters ;  and 
he  was  a  playwright,  and  a  player,  long 
before  he  was  sent  to  school.  His  first 
stage  was  a  loft  over  his  father's  stable;  his 
company  was  made  up  of  his  juvenile  asso- 
ciates ;  he  was  always  stage-manager,  gener- 
ally leading  man,  and,  not  infrequently, 


ii4       Scottish  Universities 

leading  lady.  His  ventures  met  with  a  fair 
amount  of  success,  until  he  introduced  thun- 
der and  lightning  into  the  more  thrilling  of 
his  melodramas,  when  on  account  of  their 
dread  of  fire,  the  authorities  interfered  and 
brought  the  performances  to  an  abrupt  con- 
clusion. He  then  immediately  turned  his 
attention  to  the  production  of  puppet  enter- 
tainments of  a  comparatively  harmless  char- 
acter. According  to  his  own  account  of  his 
career,  he  became  the  manager  of  a  troupe 
of  marionettes.  His  sister  was  associated 
with  him  as  costumer;  but  he  was  the 
builder  of  his  own  theatre;  the  painter  of 
his  own  scenes;  the  author  of  his  own 
comedies  and  tragedies;  and  the  manufac- 
turer, and  creator,  of  his  own  actors.  And 
then  he  went  to  school  and  to  college.  At 
Glasgow  he  won  three  gold  medals ;  but  he 
migrated  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  in 
1837,  when  he  was  twenty. 


Aberdeen 


Aberdeen 

IT  is  a  little  startling  to  ordinary  persons, 
and  not  altogether  gratifying  to  the 
Aberdonians  in  particular,  to  read  of  James 
Fourth  of  Scotland  as  writing,  towards  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  to  Pope  Alex- 
ander Sixth  of  Rome,  an  epistle  confessing 
that  the  inhabitants  of  Aberdeen  were  ignor- 
ant of  letters,  and  almost  uncivilised.  He 
declared  that  there  was,  among  them,  no 
person  fit  to  preach  the  Word  of  God  to  the 
people,  or  to  administer  the  sacraments  of 
the  Church.  And  he  prayed  the  Pontiff  to 
recognise  the  benighted  condition  of  the 
place,  and  to  found  a  college  in  the  North, 
for  the  benefit  of  those  youths  who  were 
too  far  away  from  St.  Andrews  and  from 
Glasgow  to  avail  themselves  of  the  privileges 
of  those  already  existing  institutions.  The 
117 


n8       Scottish  Universities 

result  was  a  "Bull,"  obtained  in  1490,  and 
the  ratification  of  it  in  the  Scottish  Parlia- 
ment ten  years  later.  And  so  the  light  of 
learning  was  first  shed  upon  Aberdeen. 

The  college  was  dedicated  to  the  Holy 
Mother,  and  was  originally  called  the  Col- 
lege of  St.  Mary  of  the  Nativity.  But,  as 
its  scope  was  broadened,  and,  as  the  arts 
and  sciences  began  to  run  side  by  side  with 
divinity,  it  became  known  as  "King's  Col- 
lege"; no  doubt  in  honour  of  that  same 
James  Fourth  of  Scotland,  who  had  done  so 
much  to  foster  it. 

Ignorance  of  letters,  in  their  simplest 
form,  it  may  be  said  in  defence  of  Aberdeen, 
was  very  general  in  those  days,  as  the  his- 
torians tell  us ;  and  it  is  now  impossible  to 
prove  that  a  single  Scottish  baron  a  century 
before  the  establishment  of  King's  College 
could  write  his  own  name. 

King's  was  particularly  fortunate  from  the 
beginning.  Bishop  Elphinstone,  James's 
guide,  philosopher,  and  friend  in  that  part 
of  the  Kingdom,  and  the  instigator  of  the 


Aberdeen  119 

institution,  richly  endowed  it ;  and,  at  his 
death,  he  left  for  its  continuance,  what  was 
then  a  large  sum  of  money.  Its  earliest 
professors  were  men  faithful,  sincere,  and 
eminently  fitted  for  their  work;  and  it  was 
fairly  well  housed.  Its  Chapel,  still  stand- 
ing at  the  beginning  of  this  twentieth  cen- 
tury, carefully  restored  and  famous  for  its 
carvings  of  wood,  is  all  that  is  left,  now,  of 
the  original  structure,  except  the  crown- 
capped  tower,  picturesque,  and  beloved  of 
all  Aberdonians. 

In  the  Chapel,  during  term-time,  in  these 
days,  but  on  Sunday  mornings  only,  are 
services  held;  not  compulsory,  although 
largely  attended  by  the  students,  male  and 
female,  generally  in  cap  and  gown.  The 
uniform,  by  the  way,  is  not  compulsory 
either. 

No  little  solemn,  old-fashioned  ceremony 
is  observed  on  these  occasions.  Behind  an 
officer,  bearing  the  mace,  marches  the  Prin- 
cipal, robed.  He  is  followed  by  the  pro- 
fessors, also  robed,  walking  according  to 


120       Scottish  Universities 

seniority  of  appointment.  The  Head  of  the 
College  occupies  the  ancient  throne  of  the 
pre-Reformation  bishops ;  and  the  professors 
sit  in  stalls,  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  of  him, 
within  what  was,  originally,  the  high  altar. 

The  students  have  seats  reserved  in  the 
body  of  the  building;  the  young  women 
being  separated  from  the  young  men  by  the 
breadth  of  the  aisle.  At  the  west  end  of 
the  edifice  are  beautifully  carved  stalls,  in 
which  sit,  on  one  side,  those  relatives  and 
friends  of  the  Faculty  who  belong  to  the 
gentler  sex.  On  the  other  side  is  accommo- 
dation for  any  male  person  who  may  enjoy 
the  privilege  of  that  extremity  of  the  sanc- 
tuary. They  are  as  firmly  separated  as  if  it 
were  a  Jewish  synagogue  or  a  Quaker  meet- 
ing-house. The  aged  pulpit,  brought  from 
the  Cathedral  of  Aberdeen,  bears  the  arms 
of  a  prelate  of  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

Bishop  Elphinstone,  the  founder,  sleeps 
under  a  slab  of  black  marble,  in  front  of  the 
altar;  and  near  by  is  a  slab  of  blue-stone 


Aberdeen  121 

commemorating  Hector  Boece,  the  historian 
and  the  earliest  Principal  of  King's.  Why 
these  monuments  are  not  of  Aberdeen 
granite  is  not  explained,  nor  is  it  known, 
now,  what  became  of  the  metal  effigies 
which  once  ornamented  the  tombs  of  these 
ancient,  original  worthies.  These  brasses, 
certainly  merited  a  better  fate  than  to  have 
stopped  a  modern  hole,  or  to  have  kept  the 
wind  away  from  some  later-day  vandal. 

The  long-abolished  custom  of  college 
residence  was  tried,  again,  at  King's,  about 
1750,  on  the  ground  that  the  students, 
scattered  in  lodgings  about  the  town,  were 
badly  looked  after  in  the  matter  of  physical 
care  and  attention.  There  were  two  scales 
of  living,  one  cheaper,  and,  naturally,  poorer, 
than  the  other.  There  were  public  prayers 
every  morning  at  eight ;  and  the  gates  were 
shut  every  evening  at  nine.  All  this  was 
looked  upon,  however,  as  bordering  too 
much  upon  the  rejected  and  abhorred  con- 
vent and  monastic  system,  and  it  was  soon 
given  up. 


122        Scottish  Universities 

Mr.  John  Malcolm  Bulloch,  in  his  History 
of  the  University,  says  that  this  residential 
part  of  King's  College,  long  since  vanished, 
seems  to  have  been  upon  the  site  of  the 
present  Greek  and  Latin  class-rooms.  It 
consisted  of  about  seventeen  chambers, 
named  after  the  heavenly  bodies,  as  Jupiter, 
Luna,  Saturn,  Mercury,  and  the  like;  or 
after  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  as  Taurus, 
Gemini,  Leo,  Virgo,  and  Scorpio. 

The  library  of  King's  College,  now  prop- 
erly housed,  is  not  particularly  remarkable 
or  distinguished,  except  for  its  troubles  and 
trials.  It  was  originally  built  on  the  wall 
of  the  Chapel,  when  it  consisted,  chiefly,  of 
purely  ecclesiastical  works.  About  the  end 
of  the  second  decade  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, what  the  borrowers  and  stealers  had 
left  of  it  was  carried  to  the  Jewel  House. 
A  few  years  later,  the  room  was  enlarged 
and  repaired;  about  1775,  it  was  nearly  de- 
stroyed by  fire;  and  the  books  were  kept 
in  the  nave  of  the  Chapel  until  1870,  when 
the  present  Library  building  was  erected. 


-ITY 

Of 


Aberdeen  123 

Marischal  College,  in  the  New  Town  of 
Aberdeen,  was  founded  in  1593,  by  George, 
Fifth  Earl  Marischal  of  Scotland,  hence  its 
name.  There  would  seem  to  be  no  particu- 
lar reason  for  two  academies  so  near  to- 
gether; but,  perhaps,  the  New  Town,  then 
more  important  and  more  populous  than 
the  Old,  was  a  little  jealous  that  a  poor  vil- 
lage, consisting  of  a  single  street,  should  be 
the  municipal  seat  of  learning.  But,  more 
probably,  there  was  a  feeling  that  King's 
College  leaned  too  much  towards  the  old 
order  of  things  religious;  that  particular 
Earl  Marischal,  the  founder,  being  a  zealous 
member  of  the  Reformed  Church.  He  and 
his  heirs  retained  the  right  of  appointing 
Principal  and  Faculty,  until  the  family 
estates  were  forfeited,  in  1715,  when  the 
last  Earl  Marischal  found  himself  in  serious 
difficulties  with  the  Crown,  which  assumed 
the  patronage. 

The  earliest  home  of  Marischal  College 
was  in  the  old  monastery  of  the  Grey 
Friars.  When  it  was  about  a  century  old, 


i26       Scottish  Universities 

students  of  King's  and  Marischal,  which, 
now  and  then,  resulted  in  rows  between 
Gown  and  Gown,  with  Town  as  a  passive, 
but  interested,  spectator.  And  it  is  hinted 
that  the  Faculty  of  each  institution  encour- 
aged, rather  than  discouraged,  the  trouble. 
But,  in  the  course  of  time,  harmony  was 
established,  until  the  rivals  became  as  one 
flesh,  some  forty  years  ago. 

There  was,  on  both  sides,  no  little  opposi- 
tion to  the  combination,  but  in  1858,  an  Act 
was  passed  for  the  better  government  of  the 
universities  of  Scotland,  which  provided 
that  "the  University  of  King's  College  of 
Aberdeen  and  Marischal  College  of  Aber- 
deen were  to  be  united  and  incorporated 
into  one  university,  under  the  style  and 
title  of  the  University  of  Aberdeen."  And 
thus,  although  still  separated  in  space,  they 
are  one  in  title  and  in  spirit;  the  arts  and 
divinity  being  taught  in  the  Old  Town, 
while  medicine,  science,  and  law  are  taught 
in  the  New. 

We   read   that   during  the   last  years  of 


Aberdeen  127 

Catholic  rule  at  Aberdeen,  the  day's  duties 
began  at  six  in  the  morning ;  that  every  one 
in  the  College,  even  including  the  servants, 
was  compelled  to  speak  Latin,  except  in 
cases  of  necessity,  which,  no  doubt,  were 
frequent ;  and  that  the  bursars  had  to  wear 
their  hoods  everywhere,  except  in  chapel 
and  in  chambers.  Those  bursars  served 
at  the  common-table,  and  acted  as  jani- 
tors, week  about.  Nearly  all  the  students 
slept  in  the  College  buildings  then;  and 
those  who  lodged  elsewhere  were  not  per- 
mitted to  go  out  between  six  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  nine  in  the  evening,  unless  to  get 
their  meals.  It  was  another  duty  of  the 
bursars,  who  wore  long  gowns  with  white 
belts,  to  see  that  the  rich  took  no  advantage 
of  those  who  were  poor  in  purse;  to  see 
that  the  poor  were  not  plundered  by  the 
drones ;  "Doronery"  seeming  to  be  synonym- 
ous with  wealth.  The  rules  for  the  exclu- 
sion of  women  were  very  strictly  enforced ; 
and  celibacy  was  compulsory.  As  late  as 
the  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century, 


128        Scottish  Universities 

every  professor  was  "to  remain  a  single 
person,  and  no  ways  to  marry  a  wife,  so  long 
as  he  remained  in  said  office."  Up  to  that 
time,  the  graduating  students  were  in  the 
habit  of  entertaining  the  Faculty  at  ban- 
quets, each  student  being  assessed  no  small 
sum  for  that  purpose.  But  the  parents 
complained  of  the  cost  of  these  feastings; 
and,  in  1628,  the  practice  was  abandoned, 
although  the  assessments  continued.  The 
money  went  no  longer  for  "drinke,"  but 
for  books  to  increase  the  library;  each 
volume  containing  the  donor's  name,  and 
an  expression  of  his  thankful  remembrance 
for  his  education.  The  money  was  certainly 
spent  for  a  better  purpose;  but  it  is  not 
recorded  that  the  parents  were  any  better 
pleased  at  the  additional  expense. 

Provision  was  made  for  two  hours  of 
play  every  afternoon ;  although  ' '  care  was 
taken  to  employ  a  spy  that  none  might 
play  truant  on  the  links " — which  hints 
at  golf  at  Aberdeen  as  early  as  1641. 
The  game  figures  in  a  statute  of  James 


Aberdeen  129 

First  (of  Scotland)  dated  some  two  centuries 
earlier. 

Bowles,  target-practice,  and  football  were 
favourite  amusements.  Bowles  were  harm- 
less enough,  as  still  they  are;  but  football 
was  considered  dangerous ;  and  we  read  that 
when  one  townsman  complained  of  being 
sorely  injured  in  the  calf  by  a  careless  arrow, 
shot  from  the  Quadrangle  of  Marischal,  he 
was  told  that  it  might  have  been  worse — the 
shaft  might  have  killed  his  neighbour's  cow, 
and  that  the  matter  would  be  looked  into ! 

The  Faculty  as  well  as  the  students  had 
their  recreations  and  pleasantries;  for  it  is 
recorded  that  when  the  regents  of  the  New 
College  "went  across,"  to  visit  the  profess- 
ors at  Old  Aberdeen,  they  were  regaled 
with  "wyne,  tobacco  and  pypes" ;  and  that 
a  certain  Earl  of  Mar,  on  one  occasion,  was 
treated  to  sack  and  beer,  between  smokes. 

A  serious  Town  and  Gown  battle  was 
fought,  in  1770,  between  King's  and  a  band 
of  youthful  mariners,  from  the  ships  in  the 
harbour.  The  sailors  seem  to  have  had  the 


130       Scottish  Universities 

better  of  it ;  for  Gown  was  driven  ignomini- 
ously  into  the  building;  the  gates  of  which 
narrowly  escaped  the  assault  of  a  battering- 
ram  in  enraged  seafaring  hands.  The  Prin- 
cipal, however,  in  all  the  dignity  of  his 
office,  addressed  the  attacking  force,  and 
requested  them  to  come  back  again  the  next 
morning  to  talk  it  all  over  quietly.  The 
next  morning  the  navigators  had  other 
things  to  do,  and  to  think  about,  and  the 
gates  were  spared.  It  is  believed  that  the 
undergraduates  began  it,  which  is  not  un- 
likely. Blue-jackets,  generally,  are  offensive 
to  scarlet  gowns. 

The  old  names  of  the  class-men  at  Aber- 
deen are  still  retained  in  part.  The 
Freshmen  are  "Bejans";  the  Seniors  are 
"Magistrands,"  as  at  the  beginnings  of 
things ;  although  the  Juniors  are  "Tertians," 
now,  not  "Bachelors."  The  University,  in 
its  retention,  in  greater  or  lesser  measure,  of 
some  of  the  academic  principles  on  which  it 
was  founded,  is  unlike  its  sister  institutions 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland ;  and  it  holds  a 


Aberdeen  131 

unique  position  among  all  the  universities 
of  Great  Britain  as  being  the  first  to  estab- 
lish a  Faculty  of  Medicine.  Medicine  was 
a  part  and  parcel  of  the  original  curriculum ; 
while  it  was  not  taught  in  Cambridge  until 
1540,  or  in  St.  Andrews  for  nearly  two  cen- 
turies later. 

The  Aberdeen  undergraduates,  especially 
at  their  general  assemblies,  have  a  way  of 
handling  the  obnoxious  student  which  is 
peculiarly  their  own.  They  "pass  him  up" 
or  they  "pass  him  down"  !  If,  while  at  the 
outer  edge  of  the  crowd,  he  should,  in  any 
way,  make  himself  obnoxious  or  conspicu- 
ous, the  cry  is  immediately  raised:  "Pass 
him  up."  And  he  is  passed  up,  literally, 
generally  upside-down,  over  the  heads  of 
his  fellows,  no  matter  how  great  the  dis- 
tance; and  from  hand  to  hand.  If  he 
should  chance  to  give  offence  while  in  the 
inner  circle,  some  leader  exclaims:  "Pass 
him  down."  And  down  he  is  passed  in  the 
same  high-handed  way.  He  receives  little 
damage,  except,  perhaps,  to  his  dignity 


i32        Scottish  Universities 

and  to  his  feelings,  unless  he  resists;  and 
then  the  chief  damage  is  done  to  his  clothes. 

On  one  occasion  of  some  grand  academic 
function,  when  two  Town  Counsellors,  who 
should  have  marched  in  procession  with 
their  peers  to  the  place  of  honour  reserved 
for  municipal  authority,  appeared  a  little 
later,  and  modestly  took  back  seats,  it  is 
reported  that  the  students  demanded  that 
they  should  be  "passed  up."  And  "passed 
up"  they  were,  in  regular  form.  They  wore 
evening-dress,  they  were  not  very  light  of 
weight,  even  for  grave  and  serious  magis- 
trates, and  they  did  not  altogether  like  it. 
But  they  submitted  as  gracefully  as  possible 
to  the  ordeal,  and  they  reached  the  platform 
not  very  much  the  worse,  although  in  an 
inverted  position.  The  performance,  natur- 
ally, gave  great  pleasure  to  the  student 
body. 

Perhaps  from  Aberdeen  do  some  of  the 
American  universities  inherit  the  pleasing, 
but  solemn,  custom,  at  the  end  of  the 
Commencement  season,  of  passing  their  own 


Aberdeen  133 

"grave  old  Seniors"  through  the  windows 
of  railway  carriages  out  of  the  college  for 
ever,  and  into  the  traditional  "wide,  wide 
world  ' ' ! 

At  the  close  of  the  summer  session  of 
1901,  the  students  who  assembled  in  Mitchell 
Hall,  on  the  morning  of  graduation  and  of 
the  conferring  of  degrees,  "passed"  nothing 
but  silly  words,  many  of  them  in  the  worst 
of  taste,  and  none  of  them  witty  or  amus- 
ing. There  were  groans,  and  ironical 
cheers,  and  cat-calls,  and  scraps  of  song, 
for  the  utterance  of  which  there  never 
seemed  to  be  any  particular  reason  or  ex- 
cuse. They  were  not  even  silly  enough  to 
be  funny. 

The  only  young-woman-graduate  of  the 
occasion,  modest,  gentle,  pretty,  in  her 
gown  and  hood,  was  "capped"  with  un- 
usual honours,  for,  as  it  was  announced  on 
her  appearance  on  the  platform,  she  had 
' '  nearly  swept  the  board. ' '  She  was  cheered 
a  little,  but  the  cheers  seemed  to  be  derisive, 
and  not  altogether  worthy  of  the  subject  or 


Scottish  Universities 


creditable  to  the  cheerers.  They  kissed, 
very  audibly,  the  backs  of  their  hands  to 
her;  and  she  was  saluted  familiarly  and 
affectionately,  by  her  first  name,  "Clemen- 
tina," which,  by  the  way,  was  not  her  first 
name  as  printed  on  the  programme. 

Peculiarly  outrageous,  and  absolutely  in- 
excusable upon  any  grounds  of  morals  or  of 
decency,  was  the  undergraduate  conduct 
during  the  opening  religious  services,  short 
as  they  were.  It  was  bad  enough  when 
men  applauded,  and  even  encored,  the 
prayer,  according  to  a  long-established,  and 
most  disreputable,  custom.  But  when  they 
interrupted  the  prayer  by  frequent  calls,  to 
the  Very  Reverend  John  Lang,  the  Princi- 
pal, to  "Hurry  up,  Jock!"  they  were  not 
only  irreligious,  but  they  were  ungentle- 
manly  as  well,  which  in  some  eyes,  is  worse  ; 
and  is  absolutely  without  excuse.  It  is 
pleasant  to  realise  that  these  poor  students 
shocked  their  hearers,  if  they  did  not  shock 
themselves,  and  each  other;  and  that  there 
was  not  one  responsive  smile  in  the  hall. 


UNIVERSITY 

- 


Aberdeen  135 

As  a  certain  distinguished  Scotsman,  who 
is  sometimes  looked  upon  as  a  heathen  who 
never  went  to  college,  who  never  sought,  or 
received,  a  degree,  who  was  only  a  plough- 
man, by  birth,  but  who  was  a  man,  and  a 
gentleman  "for  a*  that" — as  Burns  once 
said:  "An  atheist's  laugh  is  a  poor  ex- 
change, for  Deity  offended."  And  Aber- 
deen, on  this  particular  occasion,  made  one 
Scotsman's  son,  for  the  only  time  in  his 
life,  ashamed  of  Scotsmen ! 

George  Macdonald,  who  was  a  student  of 
King's  College,  sent  Alec  Forbes  to  Aber- 
deen from  Howglen  in  the  third  decade  of 
the  nineteenth  century;  and  he  paints  an 
excellent,  and,  no  doubt,  a  correct,  picture 
of  the  social  life  there  at  that  period ;  which 
is  too  long,  however,  to  be  even  condensed 
here.  Alec  studied  anatomy,  and  he  fell  in 
love,  and  into  bad  company  when  his  love 
failed  him.  And  his  guardian  angel  was  an 
eccentric  librarian,  who  is  too  good  to  be 
true,  unfortunately,  and  who  must  be  a  pure 
creation  of  the  novelist. 


136        Scottish  Universities 

Aberdeen,  like  the  sister  institutions  in 
Scotland,  has  its  lately  founded  Union.  And 
it  has  its  more  ancient  smaller  social  clubs 
for  the  advancement  of  learning,  and,  in  a 
limited  way,  for  the  exchange  of  thought  on 
various  subjects  gay  and  grave.  The  average 
number  of  students  is  larger  than  at  St.  An- 
drews and  much  smaller  than  at  Edinburgh 
and  Glasgow.  The  gown  is  of  the  regulation 
scarlet.  There  are  two  sessions  during  the 
year;  and  there  is  a  University  magazine 
called  Alma  Mater.  It  first  appeared  in 
1883;  it  is  published  weekly  during  the 
winter  term;  it  costs  twopence  a  number; 
and  it  is  under  the  general  management  of 
the  Students'  Representative  Council. 

There  are  two  literary  associations,  al- 
though not  of  the  University,  of  which  the 
Aberdonians  are  very  proud.  One  is  undis- 
puted fact,  the  other  is  very  vague,  but  not 
impossible,  tradition.  The  fact  is  Lord 
Byron,  who,  as  a  boy,  attended  the  Gram- 
mar School  of  Aberdeen ;  and  who,  with  his 
mother,  lived,  among  other  places  in  Aber- 


Aberdeen  137 

deen,  at  the  Broadgate,  No.  68,  opposite 
Marischal. 

The  name  "George  Gordon,"  cut  by  his 
own  youthful  hand,  on  the  lid  of  the  desk, 
in  the  youthful  way,  is  said  to  have  been 
visible  long  after  the  youth  woke  up,  that 
historical  morning  in  St.  James's  Street, 
Piccadilly,  to  find  himself  famous. 

It  is  curious  that  so  many  of  the  lovers  of 
Scottish  verse,  who  quote  "  A  man  's  a  man 
for  a'  that,"  and  "On,  Stanley,  on!" 
should  forget,  when  they  quote  "Maid  of 
Athens,  ere  we  part,"  that  Byron,  as  well 
as  Scott,  and  as  well  as  Burns,  was  a  Scots- 
man. Though  born  in  London,  he  was 
partly  educated  in  Aberdeen;  his  mother 
was  a  Gordon  of  Gight  and  Monkshill,  the 
possessor  of  rich  estates  in  the  Dee  country ; 
and  her  husband  added  her  name  to  his  on 
their  marriage,  the  boy  being  the  only  son 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Byron  Gordon.  All  of  this 
Byron  remembered  throughout  his  life ;  and 
in  Don  Juan  he  boasted  that  he  was  "half 
a  Scot  by  birth,  and  bred  a  whole  one." 


Scottish  Universities 


Moore  said  that  it  was  always  a  delight  to 
him  to  meet  an  Aberdonian  in  any  part  of 
the  world.  In  his  early  voyage  to  Greece, 
not  only  the  shapes  of  the  mountains  but 
the  kilts  and  hardy  figures  of  the  Albanesi 
"carried  him  back  to  Morven,"  he  declared. 
And  in  his  last  fatal  expedition,  the  uniform 
he  designed  for  himself  consisted,  in  part, 
of  a  Gordon-tartan  jacket. 

Shakspere  is  the  tradition.  In  1601,  the 
town  records  show  that  "the  King's  Servan- 
dis,  who  playes  comedies  and  stage-playes,  " 
arrived  in  Aberdeen,  and  received  thirty- 
two  merks,  "by  reason  that  they  were  re- 
commended by  His  Majesty's  special  letter, 
and  has  played  some  of  thair  comedies 
here."  The  company  had  been  organised 
under  the  patronage  of  Elizabeth  ;  and  "His 
Majesty"  was  James  Sixth  of  Scotland, 
who  was  to  become  James  First  of  England 
two  years  later.  Shakspere  is  fondly  sup- 
posed, by  the  Aberdonians,  to  have  been  an 
active  member  of  this  company,  and  to  have 
absorbed  then  and  there  some  of  the  ideas 


MARISCHAL  COLLEGE,  ABERDEEN. 


Aberdeen  139 

and  figures  of  Macbeth.  Witches,  at  that 
time,  were  important  inhabitants  of  the 
neighbourhood,  and  their  incantations  and 
blasted  heaths  were  very  familiar  to  the 
people  of  Aberdeen. 

The  players  were  well  bestowed.  The 
Magistrates  entertained  them  at  dinner, 
and  gave  the  freedom  of  the  city  to  Master 
Laurence  Fletcher,  the  Manager.  Whether 
or  no  the  Town  saw  Shakspere  cannot  be 
determined.  But  the  Gown,  in  gown  or  out 
of  it,  certainly  saw  the  "  stage-play es, "  from 
the  back  seats  and  galleries ;  and  no  doubt, 
by  stealth.  Gown  rarely  misses  a  show  of 
any  kind ! 

Hector  Boece,  whose  name  was  variously 
spelled,  by  himself,  and  by  his  contempor- 
aries, Boece,  Boyis,  Boyes,  Boiss,  Boys, 
and  Boice,  was  older  than  King's  College. 
He  is  supposed  to  have  received  some  por- 
tion of  his  earlier  education  in  Aberdeen; 
and  he  is  known  to  have  studied,  later,  in 
Paris,  where  he  was  brought  into  intimate 
and  familiar  intercourse  with  Erasmus.  In 


140       Scottish  Universities 

the  year  1500,  he  was  induced  by  Bishop 
Elphinstone  to  become  the  first  Principal 
of  Aberdeen,  moved  thereto  by  the  extra- 
ordinary richness  of  the  salary  offered, 
which,  according  to  Dr.  Johnson,  was  forty 
marks  a  year,  a  sum  equal  to  two  pounds 
three  shillings  and  four  pence,  or  about 
eleven  dollars  in  the  subsequent  currency  of 
the  United  States  of  America.  This  income 
the  Scots-hating  lexicographer  of  Fleet 
Street  declared  to  be  quite  sufficient,  not 
only  to  supply  the  needs,  but  to  support 
the  rank  and  dignity,  of  the  President's  high 
office.  In  the  matter  of  this  yearly  stipend, 
however,  the  worthy  Doctor  was  either 
deceiving,  or  himself  deceived;  for  other 
historians  show  that  the  Principal  was  in 
receipt  of  fifteen  times  two  pounds  per 
annum,  besides  having  a  pension  of  fifty 
pounds  Scots  from  the  King.  And,  on  one 
occasion  he  was  presented,  by  the  Town 
Council  of  Aberdeen,  "with  a  tun  of  Wine, 
or  twenty  pounds  Scots,  to  help  him  buy 
his  bonnets." 


Aberdeen  14 l 

Principal  Boece  was  a  valuable  man  to  the 
College.  He  is  best  remembered  now  as 
the  author  of  a  quite  forgotten  History  of 
Scotland,  written  in  Latin.  But  he  it  was, 
of  some  training  in  the  then  little  known  art 
of  healing,  who  persuaded  Bishop  Elphin- 
stone  to  establish  the  Medical  Faculty  in 
the  University ;  and  thus  he  made  Aberdeen 
the  pioneer  of  all  the  teachers  of  medicine 
in  the  British  Isles. 

Alexander  Ross  whom  Burns  styled  "our 
own  brother"  and  "a  wild  warlock,"  gained 
a  bursary  in  Marischal  College,  in  1714;  and 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  in  1718.  His 
Fortunate  Shepherdess  is  not  remembered 
now,  even  in  Scotland,  except  in  his  native 
Aberdeenshire,  where  it  is  said  to  be  as 
popular,  and  to  be  quoted  as  much,  as  is 
The  Cotter s  Saturday  Night,  The  Pilgrims 
Progress,  or  The  Gentle  Shepherd  himself. 
He  wrote  verses  in  his  college  days,  perhaps 
this  particular  verse,  but  he  did  not  appear 
in  print  until  more  than  half  a  century 
later;  and  he  was  nearly  seventy  when  his 


i42       Scottish  Universities 

Fortunate  Shepherdess  was  introduced  to  the 
world  in  1768.  The  young  tender  of  sheep 
was  called  "Helenore,"  her  humble  lover 
was  "Rosalind,"  not  a  common  name, 
among  men,  in  the  rural  districts  of  North 
Britain  even  then ;  and  their  story  is  told 
in  the  Scottish  dialect  of  Ross's  period. 
"Rosalind"  and  "Helenore,"  as  appella- 
tions, are  not  quite  so  happy  as  are  "Touch- 
stone" and  "Audrey";  but  then  Audrey 
thanked  the  gods  that  she  was  not  poetical, 
and  the  creator  of  Helenore  was  "a  wild 
warlock. 

Alexander  Cruden,  who  styled  himself 
"Alexander  the  Corrector,"  was  a  son  of 
Aberdeen,  and  a  student  of  her  University. 
When  he  entered  Marischal  cannot,  on  ac- 
count of  the  loss  of  the  register,  be  deter- 
mined, but  he  remained  there  long  enough, 
without  making  any  marked  impression 
upon  anybody,  to  receive  his  degree  of 
M.A.  At  about  that  period,  he  developed 
a  melancholy  madness,  whether  from  the 
effects  of  a  disappointment  in  love,  or  from 


Aberdeen  143 

the  effects  of  the  bite  of  a  mad  dog,  the 
authorities  differ;  the  symptoms  having 
been  considered,  by  contemporary  local  ex- 
perts, as  not  at  all  unlike ! 

He  conceived  the  idea,  at  an  early  age, 
that  he  was  especially  designed  by  Provi- 
dence to  set  the  world  right ;  and  he  began 
his  career  as  "  Corrector, "  after  leaving 
Aberdeen,  by  reading  proofs  for  a  London 
printer. 

By  his  Concordance  of  the  Bible,  surely  a 
monumental  work,  and  a  literary  landmark 
of  no  mean  value,  he  is  now  known,  and  by 
none  other  of  the  books  he  published,  in  the 
leisure  hours  of  a  bookseller's  life.  The 
fact  that  an  ingenious  Philadelphian  pro- 
fessed to  have  discovered,  and  corrected,  no 
fewer  than  ten  thousand  errors  in  the  Concord- 
ance, which  he  pirated  and  printed  in  1836, 
giving  Mr.  Cruden  no  credit  for  anything 
but  his  mistakes,  does  not  lessen  the  obliga- 
tions which  Biblical  students,  the  world 
over,  owe  to  Cruden.  Nor  does  it  make 
him  less  of  an  honour  to  Aberdeen,  his 


144        Scottish  Universities 

Alma  Mater,  despite  the  fact  that  a  dog  bit 
him,  in  his  youth,  or  that  the  daughter  of 
one  of  the  local  Aberdeen  clergymen  did  not 
respond  to  his  juvenile,  and  undergraduate, 
but  eccentric  offers  of  love  and  devotion. 
James  Beattie,  author  of  a  once  very 
popular  poem  called  The  Minstrel,  entered 
Marischal  in  1749,  when  he  was  fourteen; 
and  he  remained  there  as  an  undergraduate, 
for  four  years,  quickly  gaining  a  bursary,  or 
free  scholarship.  He  devoted  his  spare 
hours  to  the  study  of  Virgil,  as  translated 
by  Dryden;  to  Thomson's  Seasons ;  and  to 
Paradise  Lost,  not  neglecting  music,  of  which 
he  was  passionately  fond.  In  1760,  he  be- 
came the  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  at 
Marischal,  occupying  the  chair  during  the 
rest  of  his  active  life,  lecturing,  and  writing 
poems  of  varying  merit.  The  first  book  of 
The  Minstrel  appeared  in  1771.  During 
occasional  visits  to  London,  he  became  in- 
timate with  Gray,  Garrick,  and  their  con- 
temporaries among  the  wits  and  the  players; 
and  he  even  won  the  good  opinion  of  Dr. 


GATE  OF  OLD  MARISCHAL  COLLEGE,   ABERDEEN. 


Aberdeen  145 

Johnson.  "We  all  love  Beattie,"  remarked 
the  Doctor  to  Boswell  once,  "and  Mrs. 
Thrale  says  if  ever  she  has  another  husband, 
she  '11  have  Beattie." 

This  was  praise  indeed !  But  one  wife 
was  enough  for  Beattie.  And  Mrs.  Thrale 
subsequently  made  other  arrangements. 

No  son  of  the  University  of  Aberdeen 
ever  succeeded  in  attracting  so  much  atten- 
tion to  himself  as  did  James  Macpherson, 
the  translator,  or  the  inventor,  of  "Ossian." 
He  entered  King's  College  in  1753,  and  he 
migrated  to  Marischal  in  1755;  but  he  took 
no  degree  at  either.  During  his  under- 
graduate days,  in  Aberdeen  and  in  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  is  supposed  to  have  studied 
divinity  for  a  time,  he  is  said  to  have 
produced  upwards  of  four  thousand  of  the 
lines  which  were  attributed  to  the  semi- 
historical  Scottish  Bard ;  beginning  his  versi- 
fication at  the  early  age  of  seventeen.  How 
much  Ossian  had  to  do  with  these,  and  with 
the  subsequent  lines  of  the  poems,  was  never 
decided  in  Macpherson's  own  time. 


146       Scottish  Universities 

His  supporters  and  his  detractors  were 
equally  enthusiastic,  and  equally  divided; 
and  Dr.  Johnson,  during  that  never-to-be- 
forgotten  "  Journey  to  the  Hebrides,"  took 
some  pains  to  look  into  the  matter  for  him- 
self. He  concluded,  naturally,  as  both 
Ossian  and  Macpherson  were  Scotsmen,  that 
there  could  be  no  virtue  in  either  of  them ; 
and,  anticipating  the  history  of  Martin 
Chuzzlewit,  he  declared,  in  effect,  that 
Ossian  was  the  Mrs.  Harris  of  Scottish 
literature,  while  Macpherson  was  the  Sairey 
Gamp. 

Johnson  went  so  far  as  to  call  Macpher- 
son names ;  and  Macpherson  threatened  to 
convert  Johnson  with  an  oaken  cudgel.  It 
was  a  very  pretty  quarrel,  so  far  as  it  went ; 
it  moved  Horace  Walpole  to  assert  that 
Macpherson  was  a  bully,  and  that  Johnson 
was  a  brute;  it  gave  Macpherson  a  good 
deal  of  notoriety ;  but  it  did  not  settle  the 
question  of  the  authorship  of  Ossian 's 
Poems. 

George  Colman,  the  younger,  after  learn- 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


Aberdeen  147 

ing  nothing  but  mischief  at  Westminster 
School,  and  at  Christ  Church  College,  Ox- 
ford, according  to  his  own  confession,  was 
sent  to  King's  College  in  Aberdeen  "to  be 
tamed. "  He  described  himself  there  as  * ' an 
extraneous  animal  in  a  crowd  of  scholastic 
yahoos"  ;  and  there  he  is  said  to  have  found 
in  Roderick  Macleod,  Professor  and,  after 
Colman's  time,  Principal,  some  of  the  amus- 
ing eccentricities  which  he  immortalised  in 
Dr.  Pangloss,  the  apparently  impossible 
tutor  to  Dick  Dawlas  in  The  Heir  at  Law. 
Colman  wrote  one  or  two  plays  during  his 
two  years'  residence  in  Aberdeen ;  but  they 
were  as  negative,  in  their  way,  as  was  his 
college  career. 

John  Stuart  Blackie  was  sent  to  Marischal 
when  he  was  twelve,  and  a  little  later  he 
went  to  Edinburgh.  In  1841,  he  was  estab- 
lished in  the  then  newly  founded  Chair  of 
the  Humanities,  in  Marischal,  where  he 
remained  until  1852.  He  did  not  enjoy  his 
work ;  for  there  was  a  great  deal  of  what  he 
considered  drudgery  about  it.  When  his 


148        Scottish  Universities 

pupils  were  not  young  boys,  fresh  from  the 
grammar  schools  of  neighbouring  towns, 
unprepared  and  indifferent,  they  were  ma- 
ture men,  fresh  from  the  plough,  eager  to 
learn,  but  not  quick  to  understand.  And 
he  felt  that  none  of  them  were  sympathetic 
or  inspiring,  although  they  were  fair  repre- 
sentatives of  the  stuff  of  which  undergradu- 
ates were  made  in  the  Scottish  universities, 
at  the  middle  of  the  century  just  closed. 

If  John  Hill  Burton  began  his  career  of 
book-hunting  in  Aberdeen,  his  native  town, 
it  must  have  been  under  the  pressure  of 
limited  means,  for  his  father  left  him  in  the 
grammar  school  with  little  but  a  clear  head 
and  a  brave  heart  to  stalk  his  game  with. 
He  gained  a  bursary  at  Marischal,  and  upon 
his  graduation  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  local 
lawyer.  The  whole  of  his  early  life  was  a 
hard  struggle  for  subsistence  and  education ; 
and  he  is  supposed  to  have  done  some  sort  of 
straggling  literary  work  at  college  as  a  help 
to  his  own  support,  although  the  nature  and 
the  quantity  of  that  work  are  unknown. 


St.  Andrews 


149 


St.  Andrews 

ST.  ANDREWS  is  the  most  picturesque, 
as  she  is  the  most  venerable,  of  the 
Scottish  university  towns.  The  mother  of 
them  all,  she  still  sits,  dignified  and  serene 
in  her  beautiful,  grey  old  age,  on  the  spot 
upon  which  she  was  born  nearly  five  cen- 
turies ago.  Time  seems  to  have  passed  her 
respectfully  by;  restoration  and  improve- 
ment appear  to  have  let  her  severely  alone. 
The  sites  and  the  buildings,  so  long  as  the 
latter  would  hold  together,  which  she  knew 
in  her  youth,  satisfy  her  now.  She  has  not 
been  placed  upon  the  top  of  a  high  hill,  in 
brand-new  brick-and-mortar  garments  to  be 
seen  of  men.  Even  the  elsewhere  all-per- 
vading electric  tram-cars  do  not  attempt  to 
approach  her.  She  made,  and  she  keeps,  the 
ancient  arch- episcopal  capital  of  Scotland 
151 


152       Scottish  Universities 

the  centre,  and  the  seat,  of  Scottish  learn- 
ing; and  she  is,  perhaps,  the  most  perfect 
specimen  of  a  university  town,  pure  and 
simple,  in  all  the  world  to-day. 

Even  before  the  establishment  of  the 
University,  early  in  the  second  decade  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  St.  Andrews  occupied 
no  small  space  in  the  pages  of  Scottish  his- 
tory, from  the  period  when  tradition  brought 
certain  bones  of  the  Apostle  Andrew  into 
her  Bay,  and  thereby  gave  a  name  to  the 
town,  and  a  patron  saint  to  Scotland.  In 
the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  she  was 
made  a  free  burgh,  the  building  of  her 
cathedral  was  begun  about  1160,  and  the 
castle  was  the  palace  of  the  Episcopal  Prim- 
ate of  Scotland  from  the  year  1200,  until 
the  Reformation. 

The  University  was  founded  by  a  Bishop 
of  St.  Andrews  in  1411 ;  and  it  was  so  well 
founded  and  supported,  in  its  modest  way, 
that  it  rapidly  increased  in  strength  and  in 
numbers,  until  it  ultimately  included  three 
separate  colleges  and  corporations — St.  Sal- 


St.  Andrews  153 


vator's,  started  in  1450,  St.  Leonard's  in 
1512,  St.  Mary's  in  1537. 

In  1742,  St.  Salvator's  and  St.  Leonard's 
were  made  one  institution,  and  were  called 
the  United  College.  Such,  in  a  few  words, 
are  the  facts  and  the  figures  relating  to  St. 
Andrews. 

The  University  of  St.  Andrews,  for  all 
that,  was  not  very  richly  endowed  with 
money ;  and  it  has  had  many  a  hard  struggle 
with  poverty.  Its  early  professors  were  not 
paid  for  their  teaching;  and  for  the  first  few 
years  of  its  existence,  the  University  had 
no  established  home  of  its  own.  The  lec- 
tures were  delivered  wherever  place  could  be 
found;  and  the  students,  as  they  do  now, 
looked  out  for  themselves  in  the  matter  of 
lodging  and  board. 

About  1430,  however,  according  to  Mr. 
James  Maitland  Anderson's  History,  a  cer- 
tain tenement  situated  on  the  south  side  of 
the  South  Street  and  called  the  "Pedagogy" 
was  granted  by  the  Bishop  "to  the  Faculty 
of  Arts;  to  the  end  that  the  regents  and 


154       Scottish  Universities 

masters  of  said  Faculty  may  be  able  to  hold, 
rule,  and  govern  them  in  Schools  of  Arts." 

Of  this  Pedagogy  no  stone,  or  sign  of 
stone,  so  far  as  is  now  known,  exists.  It  is 
supposed  to  have  gone  to  pieces  before  St. 
Mary's  College  was  built  upon  its  ruins,  a 
hundred  years  later. 

St.  Andrews  is  remarkably  well  supplied 
with  bursaries,  or  free  scholarships ;  although 
some  of  them  are  of  comparatively  small 
money  value.  Still  they  help  many  a 
youth,  poor  in  purse,  to  the  education 
which  he  seeks  and  needs.  In  the  begin- 
ning, the  bursar's  life  was  a  very  hard  one. 
Even  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
his  rooms  were  uncarpeted  and  very  poorly 
furnished.  His  parlour  was  about  nine  feet 
square;  and  his  bed-room,  adjoining  it,  he 
had  to  share  with  another.  His  breakfast 
consisted  of  a  pint  of  beer,  and  an  oaten 
loaf  of  the  meanest  quality.  He  dined  in 
an  equally  meagre  way,  in  the  common- 
hall.  The  beer  was  small,  and  tea  and 
coffee,  of  course,  were  luxuries  unknown. 


St.  Andrews  155 

Even  when  chimneys  existed,  they  gener- 
ally refused  to  draw;  and  the  unhappy 
bursar  was  forced  to  keep  himself  warm 
by  wearing  home-knitted  gloves  of  Shetland 
wool  on  his  hands,  and  by  wrapping  about 
the  rest  of  his  anatomy  his  inevitable  plaid, 
which  served  him  as  an  overcoat  by  day  and 
as  a  blanket  by  night.  His  heart,  however, 
does  not  seem  to  have  grown  cold,  or  his 
courage  to  have  been  frost-bitten. 

Each  college  has  its  own  principal,  or 
president,  reigning  over  his  own  institution ; 
although  the  Principal  of  the  United  Col- 
lege, now,  is  the  Principal,  and  resident 
head,  of  the  University. 

The  number  of  students  at  St.  Andrews, 
as  compared  with  the  other  Scottish  univer- 
sities, is  very  small,  almost  surprisingly 
small,  to  those  who  are  not  familiar  with 
the  history  and  workings  of  the  institution. 
The  average  annual  attendance  of  matricu- 
lated undergraduates  at  St.  Mary's,  during 
the  last  fifty  years,  has  been  estimated  at 
thirty-one;  that  of  the  United  College,  one 


Scottish  Universities 


hundred  and  thirty-two;  making  in  all  one 
hundred  and  sixty-three,  against  fifteen  or 
twenty  times  that  number  at  Glasgow  or 
Edinburgh. 

The  natural,  and  wholesome,  consequence 
is  that  teachers  and  taught  are  brought  into 
closer  personal  contact  with  each  other  than 
in  the  larger  sister  communities  ;  the  taught 
benefiting,  in  many  ways,  by  the  association. 

The  scarlet  gown,  as  bright  and  as  con- 
spicuous, and  as  scarlet,  as  is  the  scarlet 
coat  of  the  British  warrior,  is  a  relic  of  Papal 
rule;  and  it  is  found  only  in  the  three  pre- 
Reformation  colleges.  Seen  in  St.  Andrews 
against  the  prevailing  grey  of  the  architect- 
ure, it  is  peculiarly  effective.  It  is  com- 
pulsory in  certain  of  the  class-rooms,  and 
it  is  now  generally  worn,  although  not  of 
necessity,  in  the  streets.  The  St.  Andrews 
man,  like  his  fellows  in  the  sister  university 
towns,  is  entirely  freed  from  College  rules 
when  he  makes  his  exit  from  the  College 
gates. 

A  few  years  ago  the  gown  was  less  popular 


St.  Andrews  157 

than  it  is  at  present.  The  undergraduate 
then  was  obliged  to  wear  it  on  all  occasions, 
and  it  was  regarded  as  a  badge  of  academic 
youth  and  freshness,  an  offensive  give-away, 
as  it  were.  Consequently  the  under-class 
man  bought,  or  hired,  old  and  worn  gowns, 
or  else  he  used  up  his  new  gown  as  speedily 
as  possible,  in  order  to  give  himself  an  air 
of  age  and  of  long  experience ;  oblivious  of 
the  fact  that  even  the  college  tailor  can  not 
make  the  college  man. 

Within  a  few  years,  what  may  be  termed 
"an  Annex"  to  St.  Andrews  has  been 
founded  at  Dundee;  but  this  is  still  too 
young  to  have  created  any  especial  literary 
landmarks  of  its  own. 

Another  institution  of  learning  at  St. 
Andrews  is  the  Madras  College,  founded  by 
Dr.  Andrew  Bell  some  seventy  years  ago. 
It  is  a  preparatory  school,  and  a  very  excel- 
lent one;  but  it  is  not,  in  any  way,  under 
University  rule.  It  is  on  the  South  Street, 
west  of  St.  Mary's;  and  on  the  site  of  the 
Black  Friars'  Monastery  of  which  nothing  is 


158       Scottish  Universities 

now  left  but  a  beautiful  fragment  of  its 
chapel. 

In  this  chapel,  one  pleasant,  balmy  June 
Sunday  morning  in  1559,  John  Knox 
preached  his  famous  sermon  upon  the  ejec- 
tion of  the  buyers  and  sellers  from  the 
temple,  which  sermon  so  moved  his  hear- 
ers, according  to  tradition,  that  by  the  fol- 
lowing Wednesday,  "Before  the  sun  went 
down  there  was  never  an  inch  of  the  Monas- 
tery left,  but  bare  walls." 

There  were  grammar  schools  at  St.  An- 
drews long  before  the  establishment  of  the 
University;  and  not  the  least  important  of 
them  was  one  supposed  to  be  adjacent  to 
the  Grey  Friars'  Chapel. 

St.  Salvator's  College  is  on  the  north  side 
of  the  North  Street,  east  of  Butts  Wynd. 
As  the  senior  of  the  three,  it  was  long 
known  as  "The  Auld  College,"  and,  by  its 
sons,  it  is  still  sometimes  so  called,  although 
its  class-rooms  generally  are  new.  The 
original  buildings  were  described,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  being 


St.  Andrews  159 

"dingy,  and  decaying,  and  Old- World-like, 
but  full  of  interest."  On  the  east  and  south 
sides  were  the  ruins  of  the  houses  in  which 
the  College-bread  was  baked  and  the  College- 
beer  was  brewed.  On  the  north  side  were 
a  long  range  of  barrack-like  buildings,  with 
class-rooms  for  Greek  and  logic  below; 
while  above  were  sleeping-rooms  for  the 
students,  out  of  which  it  is  gravely  affirmed 
that  the  latest  occupants  were  forcibly 
driven  by  a  ghost.  It  was,  perhaps,  the 
ghost  of  John  Knox  himself,  whose  pulpit 
stood  in  the  corner  of  the  long,  bare,  cold- 
looking  common-room,  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Quadrangle.  In  the  hall,  the  students 
dined,  and,  now  and  then,  there  they  were 
preached  at  out  of  the  pulpit. 

The  old  class-rooms  were  swept  away 
about  fifty  years  ago ;  and  new  and  more 
comfortable  quarters  were  built  upon  the 
same  sites,  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
United  College. 

The  chapel  of  St.  Salvator's,  better 
known,  in  these  days,  as  the  College  Church, 


160       Scottish  Universities 

still  standing,  had  originally  a  heavy,  vaulted 
roof  of  stone,  which  being  considered  dan- 
gerous, towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  is  said  to  have  been  detached  for 
safety's  sake,  in  a  solid  mass,  thereby  caus- 
ing destruction  to  the  interior  of  the  chapel 
in  its  fall. 

The  fine  old  tower  still  stands  intact,  and 
in  it  still  sound  the  famous  old  bells  of 
the  now  United  College,  "Elizabeth"  of 
St.  Leonard's,  and  ''Kate  Kennedy"  of  St. 
Salvator's. 

One  of  the  most  serious  of  the  changes 
made  in  St.  Andrews  by  the  University 
authorities,  since  the  beginning  of  their 
existence,  was  the  removal,  from  the  calen- 
dar, of  the  "Day  of  Kate  Kennedy  "  as  an 
annual  festival  in  College  circles.  It  is  said 
of  Miss  Kennedy,  that  she  was  a  daughter 
of  Bishop  Kennedy,  the  founder  of  St.  Sal- 
vator's; but  this  is  questioned  by  some 
historians,  on  the  ground  that  bishops,  in 
Dr.  Kennedy's  time,  the  last  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  were  not  permitted  to 


St.  Andrews  161 

have  daughters.  At  any  rate,  the  Bishop 
gave  to  the  College  a  bell,  dated  1460, 
which  was  to  sound  the  hours,  and  thereby 
to  notify  the  students  when  to  enter  the 
class-rooms,  and,  especially,  when  to  leave 
them;  and  he  named  the  bell  "Katharine." 
The  tongue  of  Katharine  has  made  a  pleas- 
ant noise,  familiar  in  the  ears  of  St.  An- 
drews men  for  four  hundred  and  fifty  years 
now :  she  was  a  mature  young  woman  when 
America  was  discovered,  and  she  still  is 
clattering,  in  the  tower  of  the  College 
Chapel;  although  her  "Day"  is  gone,  and 
despite  the  fact  that  the  custodian  confesses 
that  she  is  cracked. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  when  her  tongue 
gave  out,  from  long  and  constant  use,  some 
years  ago,  a  devout  student  sent  to  the  pul- 
pit, one  Sunday  morning,  a  note  asking  the 
prayers  of  the  congregation  for  an  afflicted 
lady  who  had  lost  her  voice.  The  preacher 
fell  into  the  trap,  and  read  the  notice,  to  the 
great  delight  of  the  student  body.  After 
the  repairs  were  finished,  and  Miss  Kennedy 


1 62        Scottish  Universities 

was  in  a  condition  to  make  herself  heard  as 
usual,  another  request  came  from  the  same 
source,  asking  the  thanks  of  the  congrega- 
tion on  behalf  of  a  lady  who  had  regained 
her  voice!  But  by  this  time  the  Princi- 
pal, with  all  the  Town  and  Gown,  had 
heard  the  story,  and  the  prayer  was  not 
offered. 

The  undergraduates,  nobody  knows  for 
how  many  generations,  and  nobody  knows 
why,  celebrated  "Kate  Kennedy's  Day/' 
a  movable  feast,  generally  observed  on  a 
Saturday,  in  a  way  peculiarly  their  own. 

They  formed  a  great  procession,  mounted 
and  on  foot.  Kate  herself  was  impersonated 
by  some  smooth-faced  youth ;  Mephistophe- 
les  was  in  her  train ;  and  they  went  about 
the  streets  distributing  copies  of  a  journal 
called  The  Annual,  which  was  dedicated  to 
the  Principal,  and  to  the  professors,  of  the 
United  College ;  and  was  not  always  entirely 
respectful  in  its  character.  They  visited  the 
homes  of  all  the  dignitaries,  where  they 
made  demonstrations  of  various  sorts,  some 


St.  Andrews  163 

of  them  eulogistic,  others  as  disrespectful 
as  was  The  Annual.  And  the  result,  at  last, 
was  absolute  suppression ;  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  Faculties,  and  to  the  regret  of  the 
students. 

St.  Salvator,  at  the  outset,  was  what  we 
would  now  consider  "very  select."  Pro- 
vision was  made  in  its  charter  for  the 
apostolic  number  of  thirteen  persons  only. 
There  was  to  be  a  Master  of  Theology,  who 
was  to  be,  also,  the  Provost ;  a  licentiate,  a 
Bachelor,  four  Masters  of  Arts,  in  priest's 
orders,  and  six  Poor  scholars.  The  rules 
were  exceedingly  strict,  and  the  poor  schol- 
ars, and  the  poor  masters,  would  seem  to 
have  had  a  poor  time  of  it.  They  had  all 
of  them  to  live  within  the  bounds  of  the 
College,  and  no  one  was  permitted  to  absent 
himself  for  more  than  thirty-one  days  in 
succession,  on  pain  of  rustication  or  expul- 
sion. The  six  Poor  scholars  gradually 
increased  their  numbers  (they  were  poor  in 
purse,  not  in  scholarship,  it  should  be  ex- 
plained), but  the  new-comers  were  forced 


164       Scottish  Universities 

not  only  to  obey  the  statutes  and  the  laws 
of  the  College  in  all  particulars,  but  to 
maintain  themselves,  which  was,  perhaps, 
a  more  serious  business.  And  so  in  the 
course  of  time,  a  long  time  as  time  is  reck- 
oned in  the  New  World,  St.  Salvator's, 
having  absorbed  St.  Leonard's,  became 
what  it  now  is,  the  main-spring  of  the 
United  College,  with  about  thirteen  profess- 
ors, as  many  lecturers,  and  some  ten  times 
thirteen  students  of  the  male  sex ;  with  seven 
times  thirteen  sweet-girl-undergraduates ; 
the  great  majority  of  these,  without  regard 
to  sex,  seeking,  and  obtaining  their  degrees. 
The  two  colleges  at  St.  Andrews  differ  in 
this  respect  from  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh, 
and  are  more  like  the  English  and  the 
American  universities. 

It  will  interest  the  American  collegiate 
youth,  perhaps,  to  learn  that  a  sign  at  the 
entrance  to  St.  Salvator's  proclaims  the 
serious  fact  that  "No  Smoking  is  allowed" 
within  its  precincts,  and  there  is  still  an 
existent  law  printed,  and  posted  in  a  con- 


St.  Andrews  165 

spicuous  place,  forbidding  students  to  carry 
fire-arms  or  knives. 

Mr.  Andrew  Lang  tells  how,  in  his  own 
student-days,  he  met  a  very  aged  man,  who 
discoursed  eloquently  upon  the  poverty  of 
the  students  of  the  United  College  when 
the  last  century  was  very  young.  The  old 
man  "had  even  seen  one  of  them  peeling 
potatoes  with  his  razor."  Although  why  a 
student,  who  could  afford  a  razor,  could  not 
afford  a  knife,  or  why  the  student  did  not 
boil  his  potatoes  in  their  own  skins,  neither 
Mr.  Lang  nor  his  informant  has  explained. 

That  sense  of  humour  which  the  Scots- 
man is  supposed  to  lack,  but  which,  never- 
theless is  very  strong  in  the  Scotsman,  was 
certainly  fully  developed  in  the  case  of  Prof. 
Duncan  of  the  United  College.  Stories 
about  his  quaint  ways  of  dealing  with  his 
pupils  would  fill  a  volume.  By  old  statutes, 
fines  were  imposed  as  punishments ;  and  the 
sons  of  rich  fathers  not  infrequently  escaped 
their  lectures  by  the  payment  of  small  sums. 
For  the  sake  of  convenience,  Prof.  Duncan 


1 66       Scottish  Universities 

was  in  the  habit  of  letting  these  sixpences 
accumulate.  On  one  occasion,  he  called 
upon  two  young  gentlemen  in  his  class-room 
to  hand  out,  each,  five  shillings  then  owing 
to  the  exchequer  for  neglect  of  academic 
duties.  The  first,  in  response,  laid  two  half- 
crown  silver  pieces  upon  the  regent's  desk; 
the  second,  who  thought  he  had  a  sense  of 
humour  exceedingly  keen,  handed  out  one 
hundred  and  twenty  half-penny  pieces,  col- 
lected at  the  cost  of  great  trouble  and 
patience,  in  liquidation  of  his  debt.  Dun- 
can immediately  remitted  the  fine  of  the 
believer  in  silver  payments;  and  swept  the 
coppers  into  his  capacious  pocket,  explain- 
ing that  small  change  was  scarce,  and  always 
useful.  The  joke  was  not  on  the  professor! 
St.  Leonard's  was,  at  the  outset,  a  hospi- 
tal built  to  shelter  the  devout  pilgrims  who 
went  to  St.  Andrews  to  get  some  sort  of 
benefit  out  of  the  miracle-working  bones 
of  Scotland's  patron  saint.  After  the  relics 
lost  their  charm,  the  hospital  became  a  nun- 
nery for  elderly  females,  who  did  not  ap- 


St.  Andrews  167 

preciate  its  privileges,  or  behave  altogether 
in  a  proper  and  respectful  way.  And  so  the 
nunnery  was  turned  into  a  college,  in  1512, 
and  went  into  a  better  business. 

At  the  time  of  the  coalition  with  St.  Sal- 
vator's,  St.  Leonard's  was  the  richer  insti- 
tution ;  but  St.  Salvator's  was  in  better 
physical  condition,  and  it  was  accepted  as 
the  home  of  the  Union.  The  buildings  of 
St.  Leonard's  lying  on  the  south  side  of  the 
South  Street,  between  the  Pends  and  what 
is  known  now  as  Abbey  Street,  were,  long 
ago,  deserted  by  the  University,  and  neg- 
lected by  the  town,  and  the  fine  old  chapel 
was  permitted  to  go  to  ruin.  But  a  pictur- 
esque ruin  it  is.  "Picturesque"  is  what  Mr. 
Polonias  would  have  termed  a  "vile  phrase," 
but  like  "mobled  queen  "  it  "is  good,"  and 
no  other  word  seems  to  fit  St.  Andrews  so 
well. 

In  the  eastern  part  of  old  St.  Leonard's, 
Sir  David  Brewster  lived  for  twenty-three 
years.  He  remodelled  the  front,  preserving, 
as  far  as  was  possible,  the  ancient  aspect  and 


1 68        Scottish  Universities 

form.  The  western  part,  in  later  years,  was 
the  home  of  Sir  Hugh  Lyon  Playfair. 

These  two  buildings  were  formerly  occu- 
pied by  the  professors  and  students,  each 
having  a  room  to  himself,  facing  on  the 
wooden  galleries,  reached  by  outside  stair- 
cases only.  Mr.  Hay  Fleming  quotes,  from 
an  inventory  of  1544,  the  contents  of  one  of 
the  best  of  these  chambers,  supposed  to 
have  been  occupied  by  the  Principal  himself. 
The  furniture  consisted,  in  part,  of  the  fol- 
lowing articles — the  spelling  of  the  list  being 
modernised,  and  the  words,  as  far  as  possible, 
put  into  present-day  English.  In  the  first 
room  were  two  standard  beds ;  the  far  side 
of  oak,  the  near  side  of  the  fruits  of  fir. 
Item :  One  feather  bed,  and  one  white 
plaid  of  four  ells,  and  one  covering,  woven 
o'er  with  images — probably  a  patchwork,  or 
"crazy,  quilt."  Item:  another  old  bed, 
filled  with  straws,  and  one  covering  of  green. 
Item :  a  stool  of  elm,  with  another  chair  of 
little  price,  etc. 

Fifty  years  later,  we  read  that  there  was 


St.  Andrews  169 

in  every  chamber  one  board ;  and  that  one 
form  pertained  thereto;  that  there  were 
"glassen  windows,"  and  that  the  most  part 
of  all  the  chambers  was  ceiled  above;  and 
the  floors  beneath  laid  with  boards.  Among 
the  vessels  were  two  silver  pieces,  one  mazer, 
with  common  cups  and  stoups,  three  dozen 
silver  spoons,  one  silver  salt-fat,  a  water 
basin,  and  an  iron  chimney  fixed  in  the  hall. 
In  the  kitchen  was  an  iron  chimney,  with 
such  vessels  as  were  necessary  therein ;  with 
fixed  boards,  and  almeries.  All  this  was, 
no  doubt,  caviare  to  the  general  student  in 
the  matter  of  comfort  and  luxury ;  the  ordi- 
nary man  faring  not  nearly  so  well.  Out- 
side stairs  may  still  be  seen  on  some  of  the 
more  ancient  houses  in  the  town ;  and  there 
are  still  standard,  or  four-posted,  beds,  and 
stools  of  elm,  and  common  stoups  which  are 
also  beds,  with  posts;  and  almeries,  which 
are  presses,  or  cupboards  for  the  reception 
of  domestic  utensils;  and  mazers,  which 
are  drinking-cups ;  and  boards,  which  are 
tables. 


1 70       Scottish  Universities 

The  allowance  of  food,  in  the  early  days, 
Mr.  Lang  tells  us,  was  four  ounces  of  bread 
at  breakfast  and  supper;  eight  ounces  at 
dinner.  On  "flesh-days"  they  had  broth 
and  a  dish  of  meat;  on  "meagre-days"  they 
had  fish.  The  gates  were  opened  at  five 
A.M.  in  summer,  at  six  A.M.  in  winter.  They 
were  shut  at  eight  P.M.  in  winter,  at  nine 
P.M.  in  summer.  No  woman  was  admitted, 
except  one,  a  laundress,  who  must  be  over 
fifty  years  of  age. 

The  students  had  to  wear  cap  and  gown 
in  the  city.  No  gaudy  head-coverings  were 
permitted;  their  hair  could  not  be  long 
enough  to  hide  their  ears.  They  were  not 
allowed  to  give  private  suppers  in  the  Col- 
lege; and  continued  absence  from  chapel 
was  punished  by  expulsion.  These  and 
other  equally  stringent  rules  were  estab- 
lished in  1544. 

At  St.  Leonard's  the  staff  of  professors 
was  larger  than  that  at  St.  Salvator's,  and 
the  students  a  little  more  numerous.  But 
the  rules  and  regulations  were  equally  strict 


St.  Andrews  171 

and  severe.  Until  the  Reformation  it  was  a 
purely  monastic  institution.  The  applicants 
for  admission  presented  themselves,  on 
bended  knees,  before  the  Principal;  and 
begged  to  be  received  into  the  House  "for 
the  love  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  The 
age  limit  was  between  fifteen  and  twenty. 
Religious  observances,  naturally,  received  a 
large  share  of  attention.  The  poor  young 
scholars  were  permitted  to  speak  in  Latin 
only.  Bread  and  beer  were  the  ordinary 
bill  of  fare,  with  now  and  then  a  bit  of  fish, 
or  flesh,  or  kail  thrown  into  the  pot. 

The  students  did  their  own  house-work, 
and  they  did  the  cooking,  in  turn  ;  they  were 
forbidden  to  go  to  the  town  on  any  sort  of 
pleasure  bent;  forbidden  to  meet  together 
at  nights ;  forbidden  to  play  football,  or  to 
carry  knives.  They  might  indulge  in  light 
amusements  on  the  links  once  a  week,  but 
always  under  the  eyes  of  the  masters ;  and 
only  once  a  week.  If  they  required  other 
out-door  exercise,  they  were  allowed  to  hoe 
the  weeds  in  the  garden.  In-door  exercise, 


i72        Scottish  Universities 

consisting  of  dusting,  scrubbing,  sweeping, 
and  general  cleaning,  was  considered  all  that 
was  necessary  to  develop  their  muscles.  It 
was  not  what  modern  college  men  would 
consider  a  wild  life,  even  after  Scotland 
freed  itself  from  Papal  rule,  and  had  an 
established  Church  of  its  own. 

The  chapel  of  St.  Leonard's  was  a  fine 
one  in  its  day,  with  an  interesting  history ; 
and  what  time  and  decay  have  left  of  it,  is 
well  worth  looking  at  now.  It  is  not  visible 
from  the  South  Street.  But  a  few  steps  will 
lead  one  to  an  iron  gateway  through  which 
the  ruins  may  be  inspected.  The  name  St. 
Leonard's  is  now  perpetuated  in  the  modern 
St.  Leonard's  School  for  Girls. 

St.  Mary's,  the  youngest  of  the  colleges 
occupies  the  oldest  site;  for,  as  has  been 
seen,  it  followed  the  original  Pedagogy,  on 
the  South  Street's  south  side. 

Its  class-rooms  are  few  and  limited  in 
space;  but  they  are  comfortable  enough, 
and  large  enough  to  hold  the  thirty  odd 
men  who  gather  in  them  to  listen  to  the 


St.  Andrews  173 

lectures  of  the  Principal  and  of  his  fellow 
professors. 

St.  Mary's  was  restricted  to  the  teaching 
of  divinity  early  in  its  career;  and  a  Divinity 
School  it  still  remains.  Its  Principal  is 
styled  the  "Very  Reverend,"  and  the  letters 
D.D.  follow  the  names  of  its  three  other 
professors.  It  has  been  a  nourishing  mother 
to  so  many  eminent  theologians  that  the 
most  complete  and  comprehensive  of  the 
local  guide-books  to  St.  Andrews  declares 
itself  as  being  too  short  of  space  even  to 
mention  their  names,  with  the  single  excep- 
tion of  the  name  of  Hamilton,  which,  at  one 
period,  was  so  frequent  as  to  stand  almost 
alone.  Archbishop  Hamilton  completed 
the  buildings.  Out  of  the  fifteen  students 
who  entered  in  1552,  five  were  Hamiltons; 
and  there  were  five  Hamiltons  among  the 
nine  professors  on  the  list  in  1569. 

This  will  remind  American  readers  of  the 
Alexanders  at  Princeton,  and  of  the  Adamses 
in  the  University  which  is  on  the  banks  of 
the  River  Charles. 


i74       Scottish  Universities 

St.  Mary's  is  no  longer  a  residential  col- 
lege. But  when  the  students  and  their 
teachers  both  occupied  the  buildings,  two 
earnest  professors — neither  of  them  called 
Hamilton,  by  the  way — used,  Unconsciously, 
to  play  the  comedy  of  Box  and  Cox.  They 
were  in  complete  sympathy,  in  many  ways, 
although  very  unlike  in  their  habits.  We 
are  told  how  Rutherford,  Professor  of 
Divinity,  began  his  work  so  early  in  the 
morning,  and  how  Wood,  Professor  of  Ec- 
clesiastical History,  sat  up  so  late  at  night 
over  his  books,  that,  not  infrequently,  they 
met,  and  exchanged  ideas,  at  the  rising  of 
the  sun ;  the  one  on  his  way  to  his  study, 
the  other  on  his  way  to  his  bed. 

The  College  of  St.  Mary's  was  based  upon 
that  of  Paris,  from  which  come  its  customs 
of  the  election  of  the  Rector,  the  division  of 
the  students  into  what  are  called  " nations," 
the  institution  of  Faculties,  and  the  granting 
of  degrees. 

The  University  Library,  just  east  of  St. 
Mary's,  on  the  south  side  of  the  South 


St.  Andrews  175 

Street,  and  nearly  opposite  the  Town 
Church,  is  now  common  to  both  institu- 
tions. Until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  each  college  had  its  own  collection 
of  books,  and  its  own  room  in  which  to  hold 
them;  neither  room  nor  collection  being 
large  or  extensive. 

Shortly  after  the  birth  of  James  Sixth, 
Queen  Mary  executed  a  series  of  letters 
testamentary  in  which  she  disposed  of  her 
treasures,  leaving  certain  volumes,  in  Greek 
and  in  Latin,  to  the  University  of  St.  An- 
drews. Like  most  of  her  subsequent  plans, 
however,  this  one  went  very  much  "aglee." 
And  it  was  left  to  her  son,  after  he  ascended 
the  English  throne,  to  form  a  nucleus  of  the 
library.  Many  of  his  donations,  generally 
theological  in  character,  are  said  to  be  still 
preserved.  The  original  building  faces  the 
South  Street ;  a  new  building  of  later  date, 
forming  an  "L,"  lies  behind  it.  In  the  hall 
of  the  latter,  all  the  University  ceremonies 
of  graduation,  and  the  like,  now  take  place. 

At  the  back  of  St.  Mary's,  entirely  con- 


176        Scottish  Universities 

cealed  from  the  adjacent  thoroughfares,  and 
not  seen  of  men,  except  of  the  favoured  few, 
are  grand  old  gardens,  which  are  believed 
to  be  the  earliest  cultivated  grounds  in  all 
Scotland;  for  in  St.  Andrews,  according  to 
tradition,  first  began  the  development  of 
Scottish  soil,  as  well  as  of  Scottish  intellect. 

At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth,  ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  the  feeling  of 
Town  against  Gown  was  very  strong.  The 
inhabitants  had  a  great  aversion  to  learning, 
and  to  learned  men.  No  burgess,  or  citizen, 
had  ever  been  a  scholar,  not  one  had  ever 
given  a  penny  for  the  support  of  the  Uni- 
versity, and  some  of  the  riots  were  "  fear- 
ful"— the  word  being  Mr.  Lang's  own.  The 
Town  once  brought  cannon  to  the  College 
gates  to  blow  them  down ;  and  one  Towns- 
man drew  a  whinger,  or  large  sword,  on  Dr. 
Skene  within  the  precincts  themselves.  On 
the  other  hand,  Gown  conceived  a  spirited 
scheme  of  burning  down  the  city. 

St.  Andrews  at  that  period  could  not  have 


St.  Andrews  177 

been  altogether  an  attractive  spot.  There 
were  no  shops  for  the  purchase  of  necessary 
commodities.  Food  was  very  expensive. 
The  drinking-water  was  polluted  by  dirty 
clothes,  dead  fish,  and  other  microbic  hor- 
rors; the  air  was  thin  and  piercing;  pesti- 
lence was  common ;  and  the  acquirement  of 
learning  was,  naturally,  a  very  serious  busi- 
ness. But  times  have  changed  for  the  bet- 
ter in  St.  Andrews,  as  the  centuries  have 
rolled  on. 

St.  Andrews  has,  of  course,  its  Students' 
Union  like  the  other  universities ;  its  stud- 
ents' clubs  and  societies;  and  its  provision 
for  the  education  of  women,  who  wear  caps 
and  scarlet  gowns  exactly  like  those  of 
the  men ;  a  certain  professor  declaring  that 
sometimes  it  is  difficult  to  tell  the  lads  from 
the  lassies,  except  by  their  boots ! 

One  of  the  earliest  of  the  sons  of  St.  An- 
drews was  William  Dunbar,  whose  name  is 
said  to  have  been  entered  on  the  register  of 
St.  Salvator's  College  in  1475,  when  he  is 
supposed  to  have  been  in  his  fifteenth,  or 

13 


i;8       Scottish  Universities 

sixteenth,  year.  He  received  the  degree  of 
B.  A.  in  1477,  according  to  the  same  register, 
and  that  of  M.A.  in  1479. 

Scott  called  him  "the  darling  of  the  Scot- 
tish Muses";  but  the  Scottish  Muses  paid 
very  little  attention  to  their  darling  for  at 
least  a  couple  of  centuries.  He  seems  to 
have  been  possessed  of  a  certain  amount  of 
contemporary  reputation,  nevertheless,  for 
his  Golden  Targe  and  his  Two  Harriet 
Wemen  and  the  Wedo  were  printed  in  1508, 
among  the  very  earliest  productions  of  the 
press  of  his  native  country.  A  "targe" 
would  appear  to  have  been  what  we  call  a 
"target,"  and  a  "wedo"  in  early  Scotch 
was,  no  doubt,  a  woman  who  had  been 
"marriet  "  and  had  had  the  misfortune  to 
lose  her  husband  by  death.  But  until  Allan 
Ramsay  revived  some  of  his  poems,  in  1724, 
Dunbar  was  entirely  neglected  and  forgotten. 

Very  little  concerning  the  youth  of  Gavin 
Douglas,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the 
early  Scottish  poets,  has  been  handed  down 
to  us.  It  is  not  even  known,  positively, 


St.  Andrews  179 

where  his  education  was  commenced  or 
finished,  although  it  is  conceded  that  he 
studied  in  Paris ;  and  certain  later  authorities 
claim  to  have  discovered  that  he  was  a 
scholar  at  St.  Andrews  from  1489  to  1491. 
If  this  be  true,  St.  Andrews  has  every  reason 
to  be  proud  of  him.  He  is  said  to  have  felt 
the  pangs  of  love,  to  have  overcome  them 
bravely,  which  was  right  and  proper  in  a 
man  who  was  later  to  become  a  Bishop  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  and  to  have  written  a 
translation  of  Ovid's  Remedy  of  Love  before 
he  was  twenty-five.  All  this,  of  course,  was 
after  his  college  days.  In  1513,  he  put  into 
Scottish  verse  the  AZncid,  which  is  believed 
to  be  the  earliest  translation  of  any  ancient 
classic  into  any  British  tongue.  No  doubt 
it  would  be  a  greater  difficulty  now  to  the 
modern  student  of  the  generally  accepted 
British  tongue  than  would  be  the  original 
transcript  of  Virgil  himself. 

Gavin's  Palace  of  Honour,  if  it  ever  fell 
into  the  hands  of  John  Bunyan,  in  Bedford 
Jail,  or  elsewhere,  which  is  not  improbable. 


i8o       Scottish  Universities 

may  have  suggested  the  more  familiar,  but 
still  more  than  half-forgotten  Pilgrim  s  Pro- 
gress.  There  is  a  marked  resemblance  in  the 
structure  of  the  two  works.  Each  of  them 
is  the  narrative  of  a  dream  ;  in  each,  the  hero, 
conducted  by  spiritual  beings,  is  journeying, 
through  many  difficulties,  towards  a  better 
land.  In  each,  the  journey  ends  in  a  place 
of  celestial  happiness;  and  in  each,  there  is 
a  spot  of  eternal  and  over-heated  discomfort, 
luckily  avoided  on  the  road.  All  this,  how- 
ever, is  given  here  as  mere  hearsay,  by  one 
who  is  willing  to  confess  that  he  has  never 
read  The  Palace  of  Honour,  and  who  is 
ashamed  to  own  that  he  has  not  read  The 
Pilgrim  s  Progress  since  the  days  of  his  own 
youth;  but  who  is  ready  to  render  to  St. 
Andrews  the  credit  of  having  at  least  in- 
spired the  immortal  allegory  of  Bunyan. 

Whether  James  Crichton,  familiarly  known 
for  nearly  three  centuries  and  a  half  as  "The 
Admirable  Crichton,"  was  as  phenomenally 
admirable  in  a  physical  and  in  an  intellectual 
way  as  tradition  has  painted  him,  it  is  not 


to 


St.  Andrews  181 

an  easy  matter,  at  the  end  of  all  these  years, 
to  determine.  A  good  deal  of  the  quality 
of  fable  and  of  exaggeration  seems  to  have 
been  mixed  with  the  pigments  put,  with  a 
very  heavy  brush,  upon  the  canvases  of  the 
unconscious  romancers  who  have  portrayed 
him.  And  one  celebrated  painter  in  a  famous 
historical  picture  represents  the  wonderfully 
precocious  youth  as  listening  to  a  sermon 
preached  by  John  Knox  a  year  before  the 
youth  is  supposed  to  have  been  brought  into 
the  world.  Which,  if  it  be  true,  would 
go  to  prove  that  the  "Admirable"  young 
Scotsman  must  have  been  precocious  in- 
deed. 

He  was  born  in  Perthshire,  in  1560,  or 
thereabouts,  and  at  an  early  age  he  went  to 
St.  Salvator's  College  in  St.  Andrews.  The 
progress  he  made  in  his  studies  is  said  to 
have  been  astonishing.  He  took  his  degree 
of  B.A.  when  he  was  twelve;  his  degree 
of  M.A.  two  years  later;  and  for  general 
proficiency,  he  ranked  third  in  his  class. 
Before  he  was  twenty,  according  to  his 


1 82        Scottish  Universities 

biographers,  he  was  a  master  of  the  sciences ; 
and  he  was  able  to  speak,  correctly  and 
fluently,  ten  different  languages.  He  pos- 
sessed, also,  all  the  accomplishments  befit- 
ting a  gentleman  of  his  time.  He  was  an 
adept  in  drawing,  in  painting,  in  riding,  in 
fencing,  in  singing,  and  in  playing  upon 
musical  instruments  of  all  the  then  known 
descriptions.  He  possessed,  in  addition,  a 
face  and  form  of  unusual  beauty  and  sym- 
metry ;  and  he  was  unequalled  in  every  per- 
formance requiring  activity,  agility,  and 
strength.  We  are  gravely  told  by  a  writer 
otherwise  reliable  in  his  statements  and 
temperate  in  his  language,  that  "he  [Crich- 
ton]  would  spring  (in  fencing)  at  one  bound 
the  space  of  twenty  or  twenty-four  feet  in 
closing  with  his  antagonist;  and  he  com- 
bined to  a  perfect  science  in  the  use  of  the 
sword  such  strength  and  dexterity  that  none 
could  rival  him. ' '  It  makes  one  almost  dizzy 
to  read  of  what  he  knew  and  of  what  he  could 
do,  before  his  nourishing  mothers,  at  St. 
Salvator's  had  completed  their  polishing  of 


St.  Andrews  183 

him;  and  had  sent  him  off  on  his  travels. 
He  finished  his  career  at  the  end  of  a  couple 
of  years,  according  to  tradition,  in  a  street 
brawl  in  an  Italian  city,  after  he  had  killed 
the  best  swordsman  of  the  land  in  a  duel, 
and  had  confounded  the  Solons  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Padua  in  his  disputations  upon 
their  interpretations  of  Aristotle.  It  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  St.  Andrews  is  proud 
of  him  to  this  day. 

The  Library  of  the  British  Museum  is  said 
to  contain  the  only  complete  set  of  his 
printed  works. 

Robert  Aytoun,  Court  Poet  to  James 
Sixth  of  Scotland  and  First  of  England, 
was  considered  by  Charles  First  of  Great 
Britain  to  be  worthy  of  a  resting-place  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  He  entered  St.  Leon- 
ard's College,  in  St.  Andrews,  in  1584,  re- 
ceiving his  degree  of  M.A.  in  1588,  when 
he  was  eighteen  years  of  age.  Ben  Jonson 
loved  him,  Dry  den  admired  his  verse,  and 
Burns  paraphrased  his  Inconstancy  Reproved 
in  the  dialect  of  his  (Burns's)  own  time ;  the 


1 84       Scottish  Universities 

last-named  poet  declaring  that  he  thought 
he  "improved  the  simplicity  of  the  sentiment 
by  giving  the  words  in  a  Scot's  dress." 

The  poem,  in  Burns's  version,  opens  with 
the  line : 

"  I  do  confess  thou  art  sae  fair," 

and  it  is  generally  conceded,  by  the  admirers 
of  both  poets,  that  the  words  were  better 
clad  by  the  original  versifier,  although  cer- 
tain authorities  doubt  that  Aytoun  had  any- 
thing at  all  to  do  with  their  composition. 
Burns  himself,  on  the  other  hand,  never 
seems  to  have  believed  that  Aytoun  was  the 
author  of  A  uld  Lang  Syne;  although  it  has 
been  asserted  that  he  it  was  who  first  asked 
the  tuneful  and  touching  question:  "Should 
old  acquaintance  be  forgot?  " 

As  is  usual  in  the  meagre  biographies  of 
the  men  of  his  time,  very  little  is  set  down 
concerning  what  Aytoun  did  at  College. 

Zachary  Boyd,  author  of  Flowers  of  Zion 
and  The  Last  Battell  of  the  Soule,  was  at  St. 
Andrews  from  1603  to  1607,  when  he  took 


0 

i 


St.  Andrews  185 

his  degree  of  M.  A.  But  he  is  more  in- 
timately associated  with  Glasgow  University 
under  the  head  of  which  he  is  treated  at 
some  length. 

Adam  Ferguson,  the  friend  of  Home  and 
Hume,  of  Hugh  Blair  and  of  Adam  Smith, 
entered  the  University  of  St.  Andrews  in 
1739,  when  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age.  He 
stood  at  the  head  of  his  class,  during  his  first 
term,  winning  one  of  four  bursaries  in  the 
Latin  examinations  and  thereby  obtaining 
free  board  at  the  College  table  during  the 
rest  of  his  career  there.  As  Greek  was 
rarely  taught  in  the  elementary  schools  of 
that  period,  Ferguson  before  his  going  to 
St.  Andrews  seems  to  have  been  entirely 
ignorant  of  the  dead  language  in  question. 
But  he  devoted  himself  assiduously  to  its 
study;  and  it  is  said  that  he  was  able  to 
construe  his  Homer  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months,  even  setting  to  himself  the  task  of 
preparing  a  hundred  lines  of  the  Iliad  every 
day,  during  his  vacations.  The  rest  of  his 
attendance  at  College  was  devoted  to  the 


1 86        Scottish  Universities 

attainment  of  a  knowledge  of  logic,  mathe- 
matics, ethics,  and  metaphysics. 

Robert  Fergusson,  whom  Robert  Burns 
once  called  "his  elder  brother  in  misfortune, 
by  far  his  elder  brother  in  the  muses,"  was 
the  son  of  a  tradesman  in  Aberdeen;  and 
he  was  originally  intended  for  the  Church. 
He  was  fortunate  enough,  when  he  was 
thirteen,  to  obtain  a  bursary  at  St.  Andrews, 
endowed  by  a  certain  Mr.  Fergusson,  for 
the  benefit  of  young  men  bearing  his  own 
name.  Robert's  classic  attainments  were 
respectable,  we  are  told ;  but  he  always  ex- 
pressed a  decided  contempt  for  the  austere 
branches  of  scholastic  and  scientific  know- 
ledge. He  was  distinguished  among  his 
fellow  students,  for  vivacity  and  humour; 
and  he  soon  began  to  exhibit  a  certain 
amount  of  poetic  talent  upon  local  and  oc- 
casional subjects ;  his  verse  being  marked  by 
a  playful  sarcasm  which  made  him  popular 
with  his  classmates,  and  not  unknown  to 
his  instructors. 

One  of  his  early  undergraduate  poems, 


St.  Andrews  187 

still  preserved,  is  an  elegy  upon  a  professor 
of  mathematics  then  lately  deceased,  of 
whom  he  said,  among  other  things,  that 

"  By  numbers,  too,  he  could  divine 
That  three  times  three  just  made  up  nine 
But  now  he  's  dead!  " 

One  of  Fergusson's  playful  undergraduate 
habits  was  to  put  his  occasional  paternal  re- 
mittance into  a  small  bag,  and  to  hang  it  by 
a  string,  out  of  his  window  but  out  of  the 
reach  of  passers-by,  for  a  day  or  two.  This 
was  to  exhibit  his  pure  exultation  at  having 
money  to  spend,  a  seemingly  rare  experience 
with  him. 

His  pranks  at  college  were  many,  and 
sometimes  original.  Once  during  an  after- 
noon's walk,  he  stopped,  for  refreshment,  at 
a  cottage  where  lay  sick  of  a  fever  a  member 
of  the  family.  Fergusson  pretended  to  be 
a  doctor,  went  through  all  the  formalities  of 
feeling  the  pulse,  examining  the  temperature 
critically,  and  prescribing  a  mild  remedy; 
doing  no  harm  to  the  patient  thereby,  and, 


1 88        Scottish  Universities 

perhaps,  by  the  pseudo  physician's  cheerful- 
ness, doing  the  patient  some  good.  On  an- 
other occasion  he  arose,  gravely,  in  church, 
and  asked  the  congregation  to  remember  in 
prayer,  by  name,  one  of  his  classmates,  then 
present,  as  "a  young  man  of  whom,  from 
the  sudden  effect  of  inebriety,  there  appeared 
to  be  but  small  hope  of  recovery." 

In  1767,  Fergusson  was  expelled  from 
college  for  engaging  in  a  free-fight  about 
some  academical  regulation ;  but  he  was 
taken  back  upon  promise  of  better  be- 
haviour. He  left  college  at  the  end  of  four 
years,  when  the  term  of  his  bursary  expired. 
He  is  hardly  a  fair  example  of  the  average 
St.  Andrews  man ;  and  his  conduct  is  not  to 
be  emulated  or  endorsed. 

In  one  of  his  early  poems,  written  during 
his  student  days,  Fergusson  sang  the  praises 
of  haggis,  skait,  sheep's-head,  and  sowens 
as  the  proper  ingredients  for  a  real  good 
dinner.  He  was  fond  of  singing  of  the 
charms  of  beer-drinking  in  the  janitor's 
lodge;  and  about  all  he  did,  in  St.  Andrews, 


1C     h 

I/HIV 


St.  Andrews  189 

was  to  make  verses,  to  drink  ale  and  whisky, 
and  to  amuse  himself  generally,  in  a  way 
equally  discreditable. 

His  own  habits  of  inebriety  were  not  sud- 
den, but  chronic.  He  drank  himself  into  an 
insane  asylum  in  Edinburgh;  and  there  he 
died,  just  as  he  had  reached  the  age  of 
twenty-four. 

Burns  confessed  that  The  Cotter  s  Satur- 
day Night  was  inspired  by  The  Farmer  s 
Ingle  of  Fergusson.  He  recovered  and  re- 
stored Fergusson's  neglected,  and  almost 
forgotten,  grave  in  the  Canongate  church- 
yard, in  Edinburgh,  and  he  caused  a  suit- 
able monument  to  be  erected  at  its  head. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  of  St.  An- 
drews men,  and  a  man  most  emphatically  a 
St.  Andrews  man,  was  Dr.  Andrew  Bell. 
He  was  born  in  the  grand  old  scholarly 
town  on  the  east  coast  of  Fife.  He  was 
educated  in  her  University,  and  he  founded 
her  Madras  College,  which  is  a  noble  monu- 
ment to  any  person. 

His  father  was  a  barber-surgeon,    living 


i9°       Scottish  Universities 

and  practising  his  dual  art  in  the  South 
Street,  on  the  east  side  of,  and  adjoining, 
the  Parish  Church. 

Bell's  name  is  found  in  the  matriculation 
list  of  the  United  College,  under  the  date 
of  1769.  He  is  known  to  have  been  the 
youngest  student  in  the  mathematical  class, 
and  he  obtained  the  first  prize  in  mathe- 
matics when  he  was  sufficiently  juvenile 
to  be  called,  affectionately,  and  familiarly, 
"Little  Andrew."  Even  in  those  days  he 
eked  out  his  scanty  resources  by  private 
teaching,  having  among  his  pupils  a  number 
of  his  fellows  who  were  several  years  his 
senior  in  age.  He  used  to  say  of  himself, 
that  he  never  refused  to  teach  anything ;  for 
he  was  always  able,  by  nightly  study,  to 
"cram"  himself  sufficiently  for  the  next 
day's  lessons;  storing  his  own  mind  with 
valuable  information  as  he  went  along. 

Andrew  Bell  was  crammed  and  loaded 
with  the  stuff  of  which  students  and  scholars 
are  usually  made.  And  there  is  no  record 
of  his  ever  having  turned  his  attention  par- 


THOMAS  CHALMERS. 


St.  Andrews  191 

ticularly  to  football  or  to  athletics  generally, 
which  do  not  always  make  scholars  and 
students. 

Thomas  Chalmers  began  his  college  course 
at  St.  Andrews  at  the  mature  age  of  eleven. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Miller,  who  was  his  classmate, 
and  intimate,  there,  says  that  he  was,  during 
the  first  year  or  two,  volatile,  boyish  (natur- 
ally), and  idle  in  his  habits,  devoting  himself 
to  football,  and  particularly  to  hand-ball,  at 
which  he  was  very  dexterous.  It  was  not 
until  the  third  session,  1793-94,  that  he  be- 
gan to  show  signs  of  intellectual  develop- 
ment or  anything  like  a  disposition  towards 
serious  study.  In  the  autumn  of  1795, 
when  he  was  fifteen,  he  was  enrolled  as  a 
student  of  divinity;  in  1802,  he  became 
assistant  Professor  of  Mathematics,  and  in 
1823,  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy.  In 
one  of  his  earlier  lectures,  during  this  latter 
course,  he  is  reported  as  objecting  to  certain 
indecorum  and  obstreperousness  of  conduct 
upon  the  part  of  his  students,  and  especially 
to  the  introduction  of  a  certain  noisy  stranger 


i92        Scottish  Universities 

who  "added  his  testimony  to  the  general 
voice,  and  whose  presence  within  those  walls 
was  monstrously  out  of  keeping  with  the 
character  and  business  of  a  place  of  litera- 
ture. The  bringing  in  of  that  dog,"  Dr. 
Chalmers  concluded,  "was  a  great  breach  of 
all  academic  propriety."  It  is  not  recorded 
whose  dog  it  was,  or  upon  what  subject  the 
dog  raised  his  voice.  But  no  dog,  who 
amounted  to  anything,  ever  barked  at 
Thomas  Chalmers. 

Sir  David  Brewster,  a  graduate  of  Edin- 
burgh University,  became  Principal  of  the 
United  College  at  St.  Andrews  in  1838,  and 
retained  the  position  for  nearly  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  living  as  has  been  shown,  in  the 
precincts  of  Old  St.  Leonard's.  He  took 
an  active  part  in  what  was  called  "The  Dis- 
ruption" Movement;  and  he  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Free  Kirk.  This,  naturally, 
was  an  exceedingly  unpopular  step  in  the 
eyes  of  the  University  authorities,  and  an 
attempt  was  made,  by  the  Established 
Church  Presbytery  of  St.  Andrews,  to  eject. 


St.  Andrews  193 

him  from  his  chair.  Public  opinion,  accord- 
ing to  his  daughter,  and  biographer,  was 
upon  his  side;  and  after  months  of  attack 
and  defence,  the  case,  in  1845,  was  finally 
"quashed,"  to  use  his  own  words.  In  1860, 
he  resigned  the  position  to  accept  the  Prin- 
cipalship  of  Edinburgh,  his  Alma  Mater. 
13 


Index 


Aberdeen  University,  foundation  of,  by  union 
of  King's  and  Marischal  Colleges,  126;  local  cus- 
toms, 131;  woman  graduate  of,  133 

Alexander  VI,  Pope,  founding  of  King's  College, 
Aberdeen,  by,  117 

Aytoun,  Robert,  Court  poet,  student  at  St.  An- 
drews, 183 

Aytoun,  William  Edmonstoune,  author  of  Lays  of 
the  Cavaliers,  student  and  professor  at  Edinburgh, 
69 

Beattie,  James,  author  of  The  Minstrel,  student  at 
Marischal  College,  Aberdeen,  144 

"bejan,"  derivation  of  term,  4 

Bell,  Dr.  Andrew,  founder  of  Madras  College,  St. 
Andrews,  157;  student  at  St.  Andrews,  189 

Blackie,  John  Stuart,  student  and  professor  at 
Edinburgh,  66;  student  at  Marischal  College, 
Aberdeen,  147 

Blair,  Hugh,  scholar  and  divine,  student  at  Edin- 
burgh, 42 

Boece,  Hector,  first  historian  of  King's  College, 
Aberdeen,  121;  first  principal,  140 

Boswell,  James,  student  at  Edinburgh,  52;  student 
at  Glasgow,  103 

Boyd,  Zachary,  student  at  St.  Andrews,  184;   vice- 
chancellor  of  University  of  Glasgow,  96 
195 


196  Index 

Brewster,  Sir  David,  student  at  Edinburgh,  61; 
principal  of  United  College,  St.  Andrews,  192; 
occupant  of  part  of  St.  Leonard's  College  build- 
ings, St.  Andrews,  167 

Brougham,  Lord  Henry,  student  at  Edinburgh,  59 

Brown,  John,  author  of  Rob  and  his  Friends, 
student  at  Edinburgh,  69 

Bulloch,  John  Malcolm,  author  of  History  of  Aber- 
deen, 122 

Burns,  Robert,  meeting  of,  with  Scott,  47 ;  compared 
with  Scott,  53 ;  indebtedness  of,  to  Robert  Fergus- 
son,  189 

Burton,  John  Hill,  student  and  bursar  at  Marischal 
College,  Aberdeen,  148 

Byron,  Lord,  attended  school  at  Aberdeen,  136 

Cadyow,  David,  earliest  rector  of  Glasgow  Univer- 
sity, 94 

Campbell,  Thomas,  student  at  Glasgow,  106 
Carlyle,  Alexander,  student  at  Glasgow,  85 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  student  at  Edinburgh,  62 ;    rector 

of  Edinburgh  University,  65 
celibacy  enforced  at  Aberdeen,  127 
Chalmers,  Thomas,  student  at  St.  Andrews,    191; 

professor  of  divinity  at  Edinburgh,  70 
Colman,    George,    playwright,   student    at    King's 

College,  Aberdeen,  147 
Coutts,    James,    author    of    Short    Account    of    the 

University  of  Glasgow,  86 
Crichton,  James,  "the  Admirable,"  student  at  St. 

Andrews,  180 
Cruden,   Alexander,   author  of  Concordance  of  the 

Bible,   student  at   Marischal   College,   Aberdeen, 

142 


Index  197 

Darnley,  Lord,  house  of,  in  Edinburgh,  5 
Darwin,  Charles,  student  at  Edinburgh,  67 
Douglas,  Gavin,  poet,  student  at  St.  Andrews,  178 
Drummond,     William,     friend     of     Ben     Jonson, 

student  at  Edinburgh,  10,  37 

Dunbar,  William,  poet,  student  at  St.  Andrews,  177 
Duncan,    Prof.,    of    United    College,    St.    Andrews, 

anecdote  of,  166 
Dundee,  Annex  to  St.  Andrews  at,  157 

Edinburgh  University,  foundation  of,  3;  medical 
schools  of,  7;  library  of,  10;  societies  in,  20 

Elphinstone,  Bishop,  patron  of  King's  College, 
Aberdeen,  118 

Ferguson,  Adam,  student  at  St.  Andrews,  185;  pro- 
fessor at  Edinburgh,  46;  meeting  of  Scott  and 
Burns  at  the  house  of,  47 

Fergusson,  Rev.  Menzies,  author  of  My  College 
Days,  Edinburgh,  26 

Fergusson,  Robert,  poet,  student  at  St.  Andrews, 
186 

Fleming,  Hay,  quotation  by,  from  old  inventory  of 
St.  Leonard's  College,  St.  Andrews,  168 

Froude's  Life  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  descriptions  of 
Scottish  university  life  in,  28 

Glasgow,  University  of,  foundation  of,  79;    educa- 
tion of  women  at,  96;  jubilee  of,  77 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  studied  medicine  at  Edinburgh, 

5° 
Guthrie,  Thomas,  student  at  Edinburgh,  66 

Hamilton,  family  of,  connected  with  St.  Mary's 
College,  St.  Andrews,  173 


198  Index 


Home,  John,  dramatic  poet,  student  at  Edinburgh, 

44 
Hume,  David,  student  at  Edinburgh,  41 

James    VI    of   Scotland,    charter   granted   by,    for 

founding  of  Edinburgh  University,  3 
Jeffrey,  Francis,  student  at  Glasgow,  104 
Johnson,    Dr.,    his    opinion    of    Beattie,    145;     his 
opinion  of  Macpherson,  146 

Kennedy,    Kate,   traditional  character  of  St.   An- 
drews, 1 60 

King's  College,  Aberdeen,  founding  of,  117 
Knox,  John,  sermon  preached  by,  in  Black  Friars' 
Chapel,  St.  Andrews,  158 

Li  til,  Clement,  founder  of  Edinburgh  library,  10 
Lockhart,  John  Gibson,  son-in-law  of  Scott,  student 

at    Glasgow,    108;     quotation   from   life   of,    by 

Andrew  Lang,  89 

Macdonald,  George,  student  at  Aberdeen,  135 
Mackenzie,  Henry,   "the  Man  of  Feeling,"  student 

at  Edinburgh,  50 
Macleod,     Norman,     student    at    Edinburgh,     71; 

student  at  Glasgow,  112 
Macpherson,  James,  translator  of  "Ossian,"  student 

at  Marischal  College,  Aberdeen,  145 
Madras  College,    preparatory  school  to  University 

of  St.  Andrews,  157 
Mallet,    David,    friend    and    classmate    of    James 

Thomson,  student  at  Edinburgh,  40 
Marischal  College,  Aberdeen,  founding  of,  123 
Marischal,  George,  fifth  earl,  founder  of  Marischal 

College,  Aberdeen,  123 


Index  199 

Mitchell,  Dr.  Charles,  patron  of  Marischal  College, 
Aberdeen,  125 

Nicholas  V,  Pope,  founder  of  Glasgow  University, 
79 

Park,  Mungo,  student  at  Edinburgh,  59 

Playfair,  Sir  Hugh  Lyon,   occupant  of  part  of  St. 

Leonard's  College  buildings,  St.  Andrews,  168 
Pollok,  Robert,  student  at  Glasgow,  no 

Robertson,  William,  historian,  student  at  Edin- 
burgh, 45 

Ross,  Alexander,  student  at  Marischal  College, 
Aberdeen,  141 

Rutherford,  Prof.,  of  St.  Mary's  College,  St.  Andrews, 
anecdote  of,  174 

St.  Andrews  University,  founding  of,  152;  riots 
between  "town  and  gown,"  176;  education  of 
women  at,  177 

St.  Leonard's  College,  St.  Andrews,  founded,  153; 
absorption  with  St.  Salvator's,  164;  originally 
a  hospital  for  pilgrims,  166;  a  nunnery,  166; 
old  inventory  of,  1 68 ;  until  Reformation  a  mon- 
astic institution,  171;  chapel  of,  172;  name 
perpetuated  in  school  for  girls,  172 

St.  Mary's  College,  St.  Andrews,  founded,  153; 
average  number  of  students  at,  155;  at  first 
restricted  to  teaching  of  divinity,  173 

St.  Salvator's  College,  St.  Andrews,  founded,  153; 
chapel  of,  159;  charter  of,  163;  absorption  with 
St.  Leonard's,  164 

Scott,  Sir  Gilbert,  architect  of  new  building  of 
Glasgow  University,  95 


200  Index 


Scott,  Michael,  student  at  Glasgow,  112 

Scott,    Sir    Walter,    student    at    Edinburgh,     54; 

meeting    of,    with    Burns,    47;     compared    with 

Burns,  53 

Shakspere,  possible  visit  of,  to  Aberdeen,  138 
Sharp,  Rev.  James,  description  of  student  life  of, 

at  Edinburgh,  31 

Smail,  Thomas,  college  friend  of  Carlyle,  63 
Smith,  Adam,  student  at  Glasgow,  101;  lectured  at 

Edinburgh,  50 
Smollett,  Tobias,  student  at  Glasgow,  99;  quotation 

from  Humphry  Clinker  by,  46 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  student  at  Edinburgh,  71 
Stewart,  Dugald,  student  at  Glasgow,  103;  professor 

at  Edinburgh,  49 

Taylor,  Tom,  student  at  Glasgow,  113 
Thomson,  James,  author  of  The  Seasons,  student 
at  Edinburgh,  38  • 

United  College,  St.  Andrews,  formed  by  the  union 

of  St.  Salvator's  and  St.  Leonard's,  153 
Universities  Act  of  1889,  96 

Watt,  James,   mathematical  instrument  maker  to 

the  University  of  Glasgow,  103 
Wilson,    John,    "Christopher    North,"    student    at 

Glasgow,  1 08;   professor  at  Edinburgh,  57 
Witherspoon,  John,  president  of  Princeton  College, 

and  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 

student  at  Edinburgh,  49 
Wood,   Prof.,  of  St.  Mary's  College,  St.  Andrews, 

anecdote  of,  174 
Woodrow,  Robert,  author  of  History  of  the  Sufferings 

of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  student  at  Glasgow,  99 


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